Self Support
by MahNati
Summary: It is usually said that you first need to love yourself, before loving others. Perhaps Robin shouldn't have taken that too literally.
1. Chapter 1

**Well, this fic has been in my head for a while. I actually want to thank my friend, niigoki, for encouraging me on going on with this idea, because she once said she'd rather see Robin kiss himself than make him marry Lucina (thank you for that image). And also because of Tune4Toons' fic "Battery Life", even though... Ah, never mind. Let's get this thing rolling and see where it gets.**

**This fic is also the greatest excuse I could find to use that S support pun. Yeah.**

**EDIT: Okay, I was supposed to put this a long time ago, but this story will contain spoilers for Fire Emblem: Awakening. I should have warned about this before and I'm really sorry for that.**

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><p>The silvery lights of the cloudy morning started to invade the dark bedroom, slowly waking up the white haired tactician that slept soundly in his bed. That was not to say that he actually wanted to get up from his bed and he just merely tossed to the side, trying to regain his slumber. That wasn't a hard thing to do for him, as he was perfectly capable of sleeping even in the middle of the road of a sunny day with no problem whatsoever. From what he could especulate, it would be a couple of hours until breakfast would be served, so maybe he could sleep for maybe one more hour and then use the other hour to wake up and prepare properly for the day.<p>

Or that was his plan, until he heard low moans of distress and the sound of ruffling sheets from the other side of the room. Oh, well.

He could go back to sleep, but his consciousness would feel heavy if he let his roomate like that. Not to mention, it was hard to sleep with all the sound she was making. Taking a deep breath, he got up from his bed and rubbed his eyes, trying to shake off the sleep away. Time to wake up, Robin.

Robin walked towards the other bed in careful steps and making sure he wouldn't trip in a lost boot in the middle of the floor. Once he reached the bed, he sat down besides his sleeping roomate and gently put a hand on her shoulder and shook her awake.

"Hey, Robin," he whispered. "Are you alright?"

"Hmm..." she grunted with squinted eyes. "Ghnn... N-No..."

"Robin, you're having a nightmare," he continued. "Wake up!"

"AH!" the girl shot her eyes wide open and sat up in a jolt.

"It's okay, it's okay," he shushed her, trying to help her to back to breathing normally. "You were just dreaming."

"Ugh, Rob," she said pressing her hand on her forehand, brushing off the strands of white hair from her face. "Yeah, just a nightmare. Thanks for waking me up."

"Grima again?"

"Yeah."

Robin rubbed her eyes one, two, three times, but her mind eventually started working properly. How she hated waking up like this, especially because of a nightmare of something that she technically has never experienced in her life. Oh, the joys of being an exact clone of someone who had to go through hell and come back to tell the story. Robin could very well live her life just fine without retaining every single memory of the original Robin that resided in Ylisse and suffering unnecessary PTSD in consequence.

At least, she had her roomate and counterpart to wake her up every time. Especially from this particular dream.

Both her and the other Robin (who she called Rob just to diferentiate them) were newcomers to the Super Smash Bros fighting tournament, a rather curious event that happened every year in a place simply called Smash World, a realm created by a giant, disembodied floating hand, fittingly called Master Hand. This fighting tournament consisted of the most variated heroes, villains and warriors from the most diferent corners of the universe gathering together in the most dynamic arenas created to basically just beat the lights out of each other until there was only one champion.

Except actually getting the original heroes, villains and warriors and taking them out of their respective realities wasn't exactly a sensible thing to do. Something about keeping the balance of said worlds and how it would mess around with the natural order of them, Robin couldn't remember the exact details of what Master Hand had said to both her and Rob when came to be. So, in order to fix this, the hand decided to create an avatar for each fighter, a clone that could live in this particular world and participate in the fighting tournament that would retain the same memories, personalities and (sometimes a little tweaked) skills of their original counterparts.

And while Robin could understand the reason why their master gave them their personalities and memories, after all, who would find it interesting to see souless clones duking it out at each other without any motivation or purpose, Robin still found it counterproductive to make them carry on the extremely negative memories as well. Like the one where she almost lost her mind and body to a powerful god dragon of darkness and just basically almost screwed up her entire relationship with her comarades and friends and the whole world.

Especially that one.

Also, all the wars and bloodshed. She could also live without those memories as well.

She didn't care if that built character. Nothing could justify the horrible nightmares she and Rob kept getting almost every night because of the original Robins' past. But here they were, two versions of the same person, sharing the same trauma and the same hotel room. Having someone this close made her feel a lot better about her whole existence, if she was to be honest.

Robin was tired of those nightmares, but she could deal with them as long as Rob was there to wake her up.

Rob, who was already more awake than Robin, had already locked himself in the bathroom in order to change his clothes. Since the two were basically Robin, Master Hand thought that it really wouldn't matter if the two shared the same room, so the two were stuck in a routine of using the bathroom as a private point for changing. Because, yes, they both were Robin, but that still didn't change the fact that he was a man and she was a woman, and changing clothes in front of each other was beyond uncomfortable for both.

Once he finished putting on his heavy purple coat and boots, Robin knocked on the door. "Hey, Robin," he called out. "You finished there? Can I come out?"

"Hold on a sec', I'm almost done," her voice was muffled by the thick wood that separated them.

"You need help there?" he joked.

"Ha ha, you're hilarious," she replied sarcastically. "If you know what's good for you, you'll stay where you are."

Rob chuckled and decided to wash his face while he waited for her put her clothes on. Ever since the day Rob accidentally left the bathroom a little too early and saw Robin wearing nothing more than her tank top and her under clothes, leaving very little to one's imagination, he made sure to always ask if she was ready before leaving his changing spot.

It wasn't his fault, thought. How could he have imagined she took that long to change? If he took himself as a reference point, she shouldn't take more than ten minutes to change. And yet, there she was, seated on her bed, barely clothed, her very pale skin showing, her long white hair still down and messy from all the twisting and tossing around during the night, while she moaned quietly.

Anyway.

For someone with little physical strength and stamina, Robin sure knew how throw a punch when she was mad. Good thing she wasn't carrying one of their tomes.

He looked at himself in the mirror, searching for any signs of tiredness still present. Thankfully, he seemed presentable for the day enough. He ran his index finger through his eyes, nose and then mouth absentmindely, taking in every feature of his face and then unconcsciously comparing to Robin's. Why he did that almost every morning, he really couldn't know, but he never paid that much attention to it.

"Okay, I'm done," Robin said, knocking on the door. "Open up, Rob. I need to brush my teeth."

Took her long enough. Rob opened the door and allowed her to enter, stepping aside so she would have the sink to herself. By the looks of things, she only seemed awake, because by the way her toothbrush missed her mouth at least three times, and how she didn't seem to bother opening her eyes, Robin was still half-asleep. He knew exactly what to say to wake her up, though. "Oh, yeah, Robin," he said, making her lazily turn her head to him. "Don't forget Master Hand said he wanted us to meet at his office later."

"Aw, crap," she groaned and then spit the toothpaste on the sink. "Completely forgot about that! Way to start the day, uh?"

"At least, we don't have matches today."

"That doesn't make me feel better. I'm sure nothing good can come from this meeting with him."

The two had been living in the Smash Hotel for only two months and got to talk to their master only twice, so the only reference of Master Hand's personality and quirks were from the veteran Smashers that were more familiar with him. And one of these "quirks" was that, unless some major rules were broken, Master Hand would never go out of his way to speak to a Smasher in particular. It was always the Smasher who had to go after him if they were having a problem.

Rob had no idea what they could have done that would cause trouble to themselves or others. They haven't broken any rules, as far as he could tell. The tournament hasn't even started properly for them to break any rules, they have only been attending obligatory unofficial matches to sharpen their skills.

Maybe he wanted to tell them good news. Maybe he wanted to announce he had decided to bring in Chrom to the live with them, instead of making him appear as only a projection for their Final Smash. Maybe he decided to give separate rooms for them.

Scratch that one. Rob didn't want that to happen. He liked sharing rooms with Robin, despite the minor inconviniences.

Neither him or Robin were looking forward to their talk to Master Hand, but their curiosity also made them wish the time of their encounter arrived soon. "Well, it can't be that bad," Robin said, trying her best to remain optmistic.

"I hope so."

"Come on," she said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Let's go grab breakfast, before we're too late."

"Too late? We woke up early this time."

"You really wanna risk getting behind DeDeDe, Kirby or Yoshi in the line?"

"You have a point. Let's go."

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><p><strong>This chapter is relatively short compared to my usual ones, but I just wanted to have this as an introduction and nothing else. Also, I think this is my first fic where I decide to not use the Smash mansion as the Smashers' residency and that still feels very surreal for me. Seriously, who came up with the mansion idea and how did it stick so well with this fandom?<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**Wow, I'm actually surprised at how positive people were to this fic! Thank you guys for the review, favorites and follows, I hope I don't disappoint you! **

**Also, I've been watching Let's Play videos of Xenoblade Chronicles, so I hope I got Shulk's personality right, since I want to make the Smashers stay in-character as much as possible. The exception will be those who really don't have much of a personality to begin with, so I can take more liberty with their characterization.**

**So... I guess that's it.**

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><p>"You two are up early this morning," commented the blond that sat alone on one of the cafeteria's tables.<p>

"Robin had a nightmare," Rob said placing his plate on the table.

"Oh, yes, let's blame Robin's nightmares for waking up early."

"What can I do if it's true?"

"You two should do this more often. Your days would last longer and it would be more productive."

"No," the two said in unisson.

Shulk shrugged his shoulders and went back to eating his toast as the two Robins sat down to eat too. Unlike his friends, he enjoyed waking up a little before the sun came out just so he could watch the sunrise whenever it was possible. Thanks today's the cloudy morning, though, Rob could already imagine today wasn't a very good day for sunrise watching for Shulk. He would feel bad for him, but it was still too early for him to feel anything else other than wanting to get back to his bed.

"So, what are your plans for today?" Shulk asked.

"Get yelled by Master Hand, possibly," Robin said, eating her cereal. "Maybe hit the mall later, if I'm not dead by then."

"Why would Master Hand want to talk to you?" Shulk asked.

"Beats me, I don't look forward to it either," Rob answered tiredly. "Something good it can't be. You know, considering how everyone says he is."

"At least, we don't have any fights today."

"Wow, lucky! I have about four today, one of them being a five-minute free-for-all against Bowser, Charizard and Ganondorf."

"Sucks to be you, Shulk," Robin smirked.

Robin and Shulk continued doing small talk as they ate breakfast, while Rob continued eating his food in silence, not really in the mood to get in the middle of the conversation.

"Morning guys," Yoshi greeted as he passed by, carrying two bows filled with fruits.

"Yoshi! Yoshi, come here," Robin motioned for the green dinosaur to sit with them.

"Eh, sorry, I'm already eating with Kirby and..."

"Okay, but just answer something. You're a a full-time veteran, right?"

"Uh, yeah."

"So you know Master Hand well, right? How screwed is someone if they are called by Master Hand for a talk?"

From the way Yoshi winced, that could only mean they should embrace for the worst.

"Did you break any rules?" Yoshi asked the obvious.

"As far as we know, no," Rob answered.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Are sure?" the little green dinousaur eyed him suspiciously.

"I'm sure."

"Then maybe he just has an important thing to say that will only interest you, I dunno. Sometimes Master Hand likes to do nice stuff for the Smashers. You didn't break any rules, so you don't need to worry."

And with that, Yoshi bid his farewells and eagerly left the three Smashers in order to finally eat his fourth bow of fruits.

"My fight begins soon," Shulk announced once breakfast was over. "Wish me luck."

"I wish you a painless death," Rob mocked.

"We'll see about that."

The two watched the Hom leave to his doom with twin smirks on their faces. Poor Shulk had a big storm coming and they could only hope Bowser wouldn't crush him too badly. He had his ability to see into the future, though, so maybe he did strive a chance. As for the Robins, they still needed to go see Master Hand, so they decided to end that quickly and visit him as soon as they left the cafeteria.

Their master's office was kind of tricky to find and it was hard for anyone who wasn't a Smasher or an acquaintance to Master Hand to accidentally stumble upon it. Rob and Robin had to cross the entire front hall of the enormous building and get into one of the various elevators, the same ones they took to reach the floor where their room was. Once they reached the sixth floor, they had to take the exclusive elevator located at the far left of the corridor, the only one that had a device beside it that required the person to swap a card to make it work. Using the emergency stairs to reach the seventh floor was of no use, because there were no emergency stairs to the seventh floor.

Rob used to wonder wherever it was a good idea to not include an alternative way to reach the office, but really, when the only thing in this floor was only the room of the big boss who could fly off the window in case of an emergency, Rob still thought it was a rather stupid idea.

"Well, it's now or never," Robin said, raising her hand to the fancy mahogany door.

Before she could even knock, they heard Master Hand's voice boom from the other side. "Please, do come in," he said, rather calmly. Maybe Yoshi was right and they weren't in trouble. Master Hand sure didn't sound that angry. Either that, or he held the world record on passive-aggresiveness.

Rob and Robin entered the large and luxurious office in cautious steps, only taking a seat when they saw him motioning for them to sit down. They stood there in an agonizing silence for solid ten second until Master Hand realized he would have to be the one to start talking.

"Hello, Robin," he greeted. "First of all, how are you? Adapting well to this lifestyle?"

"Nothing we can complain," Rob said.

"Good, good," Master Hand mused, slightly moving his fingers as if nodding. "And I will take that you have been practicing hard for the upcoming Super Smash Bros tournament, am I correct?"

"Oh, absolutely."

"Why did you call us here?" Robin asked.

"I was going to get there. Robin, when this tournament starts, I hope you understand that you two are going to occupy the same fighter slot."

"Yes, we are aware of that," she nodded. "You said so before."

And seemed to like to remind them quite a lot too, considering he never bothered in addresing them separetly, except when trying to make a point that they were the same character.

"As such, we need to determine who will be the default Robin and who will be the deviation, before the tournament starts."

"W-What?" they stuttered in unison.

"It shouldn't come to a surprise to you that we would have to deal with this issue sooner or later. We are only two weeks from the tournament, and we still haven't decided which of you would be the official one. We really need to get this problem over with in time for the begining of the tournament."

"But why can't we both be official?" Robin asked.

"The only way possible would be if you had a fighting style similar to Rosalina and Luma, or the former fighters Ice Climbers," Master Hand said ever so calmly.

"Okay, we can do it like that! It would be just like the Pair Up system we used to have back during the war battles we were in and..."

"The Pair Up system is already being used as your Final Smash with Chrom," the hand interrupted Rob. "And no, I do not believe it would work for you as your regular fighting style. Believe me when I say that this is for the best. You two shall compete in a series of five battles to determine who is best suited to the position of official."

"But why determine a default? What does the default do?" Robin asked.

"For starters, it is their image who will make most public appearances and they are the ones that participate in most fights and earn more money. That isn't to say that the deviation doesn't get their fair share of glory and riches, but it is considerably less," Master Hand explained. "In short, the default is considered the real Smasher, while the deviation is just an alternative fighter, just to bring more diversity to the tournament, but not necessarily being as important."

Each word spoken by their master seemed to cut their hearts like a dagger. How could he say that in such a casual tone to them, when he knew one of them would be demoted as a mre palette swap of the other and nothing else? His tone of voice remained so casual, almost as if it was no big deal, yet to the Robins, the possibility of becoming just an acessory to the other sounded a lot worse than he was making it out to be.

Rob casted a worried glance at Robin, who in return, mirrored the gesture at him. He really didn't want to dispute the title of default with her. He didn't want to lose, of course, but he didn't want to win also. Making Robin become only a gender swap version of himself, with no real identity, rubbed off on him in all the wrong ways, and vice versa.

"Are there any other Smashers who are going to do this, also?" Rob asked, after realizing he had no proper answer.

"No, all other character slots already have their defaults," Master Hand said. "The "Wii Fit Trainer" has the female trainer and "VIllager" has the boy with the red shirt as their default. Since he is the prince of the Koopas and heir to the throne, I have put Bowser Jr. as the default and all of the Koopalings as his alternatives. As for Alph, since Olimar is already a veteran, it wouldn't make sense to make him the default and demote Olimar to deviation."

"Then... Why make only us compete for the spot?" Rob was genuinely confused. "You have already decided who would be what, then why make us fight each other?"

"I have tried deciding. Believe me, Robin," the hand sighed. "I have been wondering ever since I have created you; yet, I couldn't come to a decision. No matter which gender you were, you always had an impact in the fate of your world in you original's timelines. Unlike all the other fighters, you are the most similar to each other as Smashers. And, well, I can't simply make this decision based on your gender."

"Lord knows you don't need more outcries of sexism from people, uh?" Robin commented.

"I already had enough of that in Brawl. The last thing I need is people complaining about me giving preference to the male gender," he said. "Anyway, here is what we are going to do: on the next week, you two are to have one fight per day, from Monday to Friday, totalizing five fights. They are not going to be your regular brawls, but I won't give any details about them at the moment. For now, I only want you to enjoy the weekend, and I expect to see you back here in my office on Monday," Master Hand then floated towards the door. "That is all for today. You are dismissed."

The tacticians muttered their goodbyes and left the office with a weird and heavy atmosphere between them. They didn't exchance a word while taking the elevators back to the ground floor. They didn't even look at each other in the eye, almost as if they felt guilty over a situation that they had no control over.

It was only when they reached the front hall when Robin decided to break the silence. "Well, that was something," she said, rubbing the back of her neck. "What now?"

"We do as he says and fight to see who will be the default, I suppose," Rob groaned. "Just for the record, I don't look forward to it."

Yeah, me neither," she frowned. "The whole concept of default and deviation makes me uneasy. Like, one of us will just become the other's shadow, you know?"

"Exactly what I was thinking!" Rob said, before pausing awkwardly. "Well... I guess it could be worse, now that I think about it."

"Why?"

"We know Master Hand created both of us because he thought we were both worthy," he said sheepshly. "He could have just created only me or you and called it a day. Instead, he went with both of us."

"Oh... I guess you have a point there," Robin let out a small groan. "Doesn't mean I like this idea of having to fight for the default spot, though."

"I know."

There was another pause between them, until Rob found Robin's hand suddenly resting on his cheek, her fingers softly caressing it and sending a pleasant tingling sensation through his spine. "Look, whatever happens in these fights we're going to have, I don't want you to treating me any differently because of them, okay?" she said, immediately taking her hand off from his face once she noticed the awkward look he gave at her. "Ah, sorry. Force of habit."

"_Since when?_" he thought. He could practically read it on her forehead that she was lying.

"Anyway, looks like we have the today and the whole weekend free. You want to go out and do something? We can go to that new bookstore that opened at the mall the other day."

"Sorry, I promised Lucina I would spar with her once her match with the Duck Hunt trio was over," Rob apologized.

"Don't you two ever get tired of practicing all the time?" Robin asked in an exhasprated tone. "Isn't she tired of you throwing Thoron attacks at her?"

"Apparently not," he smirked. "Why? Are you jealous?"

"You wish!" she laughed and gave him a light punch on the shoulder. "Okay then, have fun getting stabbed. I'll find someone else who is free to go with me."

The two then went on their separate ways.

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><p>Of all the people that Robin expected to come with her to the mall, the Wii Fit Trainer (or Whitney, as she insisted on being called) was one of the least likely to cross her mind. But beggers couldn't be choosers, and spending time with her was way better than being some loser that sat by herself in the coffe shop because all your friends were occupied with training and killing each other in simulation rooms.<p>

Granted, Whitney spending time with Robin wasn't what she had in mind first. The trainer just so happened to also have planned on going to the mall to buy new fitness clothes and, after accidentally bumping into Robin, decided to join her, since both had the same destination in mind.

Which was why Robin was now helping the trainer with picking up clothes, instead of doing what she wanted initially.

"Okay, which one do you prefer?" Whitney asked, showing her two identical green tank tops. "This one or this one?"

"Aren't they the same?"

"The color may make it look like they are the same, but they really aren't," she said, hanging the two pieces of clothes to Robin. "Check out their fabric and you'll understand what I mean."

Robin understood what she meant once she inspected the tank tops better. One was made of a much lighter fabric than the other. Robin couldn't exactly tell what they were made of, but she got what Whitney was talking about. "Well, choose whatever you'd feel more comfortable wearing," she answered in the best way she could.

"I don't know..."

"You could always buy both, if you're not struggling with money," the tactician suggested.

"Um, no, one is enough for me," she said, putting back the one Robin assumed to be made of cotton. "What about you, Robin? Won't you buy anything?"

"Not today. I didn't bring enough money to buy more than a couple of books."

Once Whitney finished paying for her clothes, the two Smashers left the sports shop and just wandered around the mall until Robin suggested they'd go buy some ice cream. Whitney, despite being known for being a fitness junkie, agreed (if only out of politeness) and the two went to the nearest ice cream shop.

"Say, Whitney," Robin said, while they waited in line. "You are sharing the fighter slot with your brother, aren't you?"

"My brother... Oh, you mean Will?" Whitney muffled a giggle. "Robin, he's not my brother. He's my husband."

"I-I'm so sorry about that!" the tactician exclaimed. If her face could get any redder, it would have gotten with no problem. "I thought..."

"You're not the first one who makes this mistake and you won't be the last, so don't worry."

"Anyway, you are sharing the same fighter slot with Will, right?"

"Yes, we are."

"Did Master Hand say something to you about you being the default fighter and your husband being the deviation?" she asked, switching glances between Whitney and the Mii girl that was attending her.

"Yeah, he did," Whitney crossed her arms. "But that was way in the begining of our training. Why are you asking this?"

"Just out of curiosity, did he make you two compete to see who would be better suited to represent the fighter slot?"

"No, he just said I was automatically the default and we didn't have a saying in what he decided," Whitney said. "You should have seen how bitter poor Will got. He's much better now, but I can't blame his frustration."

"Um, I see..." she mumbled and thenpointed at the green ice cream in front of her. "Pistachio, please."

"Why did you ask that?"

"Master Hand is planning on making Rob and me compete for the spot. We're as excited as I'm making it sound."

"That's weird. I don't recall him doing this to anyone else."

"Apparently, we're a special case."

Whitney waited for her to finish paying for the ice cream, not really in the mood to join her in eating the cold junk food and ruin her strict diet, and continued talking once they left the shop. "Robin, what is your relationship to Rob, anyway?" she asked. "Are you two twins?"

"We're not sibblings," she quickly denied. "But I don't know how to explain what we are to each other without making it confusing."

"You can try."

"Rob and I are basically the same person."

"What?"

Robin sighed and ate her ice cream. From Whitney's tone of voice, she could already see that she would take a while to explain.

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><p><strong>Okay, so here are some things I want to explain about this chapter:<strong>

**-Master Hand, despite claiming he didn't want to be gender biased, did choose the female Wii Fit Trainer because of their gender. For the Wii Fit Trainer, it was because their symbol was of a woman, so it would feel weird to make the male the default when the symbol of representation of their series was already a woman. As for the boy Villager, I have the feeling he only chose him because he has the number 1 on his shirt. Master Hand can be kind of a dick sometimes.**

**-There really isn't anything symbolic behind the names Whitney and Will. I'm using these names because they fit the characters and I wanted them to be punny.**

**-Despite recent games not showing much, Yoshi can actually talk.**

**-I kind of wanted to write about Lucina and Rob's training session, but I guess I just wasn't feeling it enough. I plan on giving her a bigger role (plan being the key word, I don't know what might happen) later, but not now.**

**-Speaking of Rob, I can't bring myself to call him Reflet, even though it is a lot more distinct and doesn't make it look like he has the same name of R.O.B. It is exactly because it's more distinct that doesn't appeal to me as much. **

**Thanks again for reading! **


	3. Chapter 3

**I swear I'm trying to keep the updates constant. I'm not sure if this will be possible once my classes start, but let's see if I can keep this up.**

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><p>The metallic sound of blade clashing against blade echoed through one of the the training rooms that was located underground the gym. Despite being a room that simulated the Wii Fit Studio, it was a very popular training place for sword users, due to its soothing atmosphere and the fact that there was a huge mirror that covered an entire wall that was used to observe their own performance and take note on what they could do to improve.<p>

Lucina dashed forward and tried hitting the swordsman in front of her with Dancing Blade, but was caught by surprise by a sudden counter attack and got sent flying away a good couple of meters away from him, falling on the floor right on her back. "Ow," she winced. "I need to remember how powerful your counters are."

Marth let out a chuckle and offered a hand to the girl on the floor, who very gratefully accepted it. "You are doing well, Lucina. If I didn't react in time, I would be in big trouble," he said as he helped her get up.

"I... Thank you," the young princess said, a clear spark on her eyes. To receive a compliment from the Hero King himself was one of the best things she could hear all day.

"How about we stop for now?"

"Already?" her happy expression dropped immeadiately.

"Lucina, we've been practicing for thirty minutes," Marth sighed. "I need my lunch break, you know?"

"Just one more time! It can be a two-minute match!"

"Lucina, just let Marth rest. I think we can all agree that training non-stop won't do any good to your health."

Lucina turned her attention to the white-haired mage that was seated with his back rested on the mirror wall, his legs crossed and with one of his tomes open on his lap. For someone who claimed to be tired before, he now seemed well rested and could return to his training with her. She only let her friend off the hook because she was fortunate enough to have Marth and Kirby suddenly appear and say that they were planning on using that room for practicing too. She thought Robin would then practice with Kirby, but that ended up not being the case, as the pink puffball was more concerned in taking a nap on top of his head.

"You know, Robin, you could start taking your practice sessions more seriously?" the girl scoffed.

"I am taking it seriously," Rob said, his eyes still glued on the pages. "But after two hours of doing nothing but fighting, you need to take a break after a while."

"I..."

"Besides, look at Kirby here," he pointed his finger at the snoozing puffball on his head. "He doesn't seem to have any problems with resting."

"Robin, he is drooling on your hair," Marth commented.

"Yeah... Let's not mention this."

"Kirby is an entirely different species than us," Lucina protested. "You can't compare him to me."

"But he's still a Smasher like us," Marth said, putting a hand on his descendant's shoulder. "And I agree with Robin about you following his example. We had enough for today, let's return to the hotel."

Lucina wanted to protest, but seeing that she was the only one who still wanted to continue, she could do nothing but conform. After Rob carefully woke Kirby up and got him off from his head, a trail of saliva connecting his mouth to his hair, the four Smashers let the room and took the stairs up to the ground floor. Compared to how calm and empty the training studio was, the ground floor was overcrowded with eager Miis who couldn't afford to practice on the real stages, so they went with what they could get, and that was the gym they were currently in.

Though, overcrowded was an exageration, because there couldn't be more than ten Miis there, counting the lady behind the reception counter.

To Rob, building that gym was actually a great idea Master Hand had. From what he had heard from the veterans, up until Brawl, finding a good stage to practice for as long as they wanted was rather difficult. Mostly because the stages were usually either being used for official matches or constantly under repairment and cleaning because of all the mayhem that usually occured there. Having a separate building with a bunch of copies of more neutral stages with the same safety system was a given to those who were really eager to practice.

It also helped that the bulding was located just a block away from their hotel, so slacking off because of the lack of a good place for practicing was not an excuse anymore. The only downside was that there was no items option.

"Poyo, wait!" Kirby called out, making the three swordsmen turn to him. "Meta Knight training upstairs. Poyo, let's wait him."

"Oh, alright, I will wait with you," Marth said, waving to the other two. "Lucina, Robin, you can go ahead, if you want to."

Not really in the mood for waiting for Meta Knight to finish stabbing the cotton guts out of Sandbag, Rob and Lucina agreed with him and left the building.

A gust of cold wind hit the tactician's face like a hard slap and his ears suddenly were assaulted by the loud noises of the busy big city life that seemed to overwhelm them as soon as they stepped out of the building. He almost considered going back and telling Lucina that he would endure her training regimen just so he could go back to the calm and soothing Wii Fit studio, but after feeling that Kirby's drool was starting to dry and make his hair even stickier, he really wanted to go back to his room and take a shower.

Despite being only one block away from the hotel, their walking back felt almost like a journey. What tired him was not much the return, but it was just the mere thought that it took longer for him to reach his room located at the end of the right corridor on the fifth floor from the lobby, than actually reaching the hotel.

"I still think we should have stayed more," Lucina commented, her arms crossed and her eyes looking at the tall buildings in mild discomfort. Looks like Rob wasn't the only one who still needed to get used to the new enviroment they were living in.

"You are doing fine, Lucina," he replied in a comforting tone. "Your skills are almost equal to Marth."

"That is exactly the problem. Almost is not good enough."

"Marth is a skilled veteran, who has been in this businees for a long time, while you still need to participate in your first tournament. Trust me, you will be fine."

"I just wish my fighting style was as good as his."

"Your fighting style is already the same as his," Rob paused for a moment, his brows furrowing at the sentence. "In fact, there really is no difference between you and Marth, is there?"

"Um, well, the strength I put in Falchion is more balanced," the princess said. "The Hero King's strength lies more on the tip of his sword. Which is tricky, because I need to keep a certain distance, of closeness, depending on the case and..."

"But on a superficial level, you fight exactly like him."

"Well, yes. Though it does makes sense, doesn't it? I did borrow his identity for quite some time before," she said, turning her head to him. "Why are you saying this?"

Rob wanted to ask how Master Hand stopped seeing Lucina as just a character swap from Marth, but had that nagging feeling he would just end up offending her by implying she was not sufficiently unique and undeserving of her spot as a Smasher.

"Just forget it," he simply said.

"Are you okay, Robin?"

The two finally arrived at the hotel, a sudden wave of relief washing over them once they entered the warm and much quieter lobby. "Yeah, I guess I'm just tired after our training," he lied, giving her the most natural smile. "And I also need a shower. I think Kirby's saliva is starting to get into my brain."

"Robin, you know you can tell me anything, right?" she eyed him suspiciously. "I can see that you are not telling me the truth. What is it so bad that you can't even tell me?"

"It's not something terrible, per say," the tactician admitted. "It's just that I was wondering if there was a way to make me and Robin have two fighter slots."

"And what does this have to do with me?"

"You were supposed to share Marth's spot, weren't you?"

"Yes, I was," she said raising an eyebrow. "You want to know how I got to be a separate fighter, so you and the other Robin can try the same thing?"

"Sort of?"

"Robin, I don't want to be overly pessimistic, but it isn't going to work."

"Why not?"

"Because the only reason I got to be a separate Smasher was because of the difference in our physical strength," she said bitterly. "And even then, it took him a while to agree. You and the other Robin are equal in every way possible. What kind of argument would you use?"

"I was hoping of using whatever argument you made, but since you said it was useless..." Rob sulked. "I guess I really am going to have to compete with her for the default spot."

"Compete?" Lucina asked in surprise.

"Master Hand said we would have to face against each other in a series of battles, starting Monday. Best out of five, whoever wins will be the default," he explained nonchanantly.

"Um, it is pretty odd that he decided to do this, but he must have had a good reason."

"The good reason is that he probably thinks it would be hilarious to pit Robin against Robin."

"I don't think that's it," she said, the other's sarcasm passing completely through her head. Lucina then gave him a confident smile. "But I have faith that you can win! I believe in you."

"Thanks... I guess."

Rob still felt a heavy weight in his consciousness, but by how much Lucina was trying to encourage him, he didn't have the heart to tell her he didn't want to compete for the spot. He didn't know why he was so hesitant and he didn't feel like discussing this with Lucina. She already had so much in her mind, Rob didn't feel right to talk about something even he didn't have a full grasp on.

Things weren't starting to look good for his hair. Why did he let Kirby sleep on top of his head again? Oh, right, he had very adorable eyes. He needed that shower now urgently thanks to them.

The two parted ways and Robin started his long journey back to his room, greeting a Mii or another as he passed by them. After one lucky empty elevator trip and a not so lucky walk through the massive L-shaped corridor in which he encountered Princess Peach asking him why his hair looked so sticky, Rob had finally managed to reach his room. Thankfully, Robin wasn't there, so he could have the room all to himself. And by all to himself, that meant he could just take off his clothes wherever and worry about picking them up only later.

With Robin there, he usually had to be more careful with his belogings, not because Robin would throw a fit or anything, but because she also had the terrible habit of just placing her robes in random places. All the care and organization they had when arranging their books, tomes and weapons was compensated by the lack of consideration for their other stuff.

It wasn't uncommon for the two to accidentally wear each other's coats or belts, and that could get annoying after a while.

He grabbed the towel that was neatly folded on his bed and then entered the bathroom.

* * *

><p>Robin let out a tired sigh and passed her key card on the door's lock to enter her room, a bag with books dangling from her hand, almost falling from her fingertips. She made a mental note to herself to avoid returning from the mall with Whitney in the future. The yoga instructor absolutely refused to take a bus back to the hotel and forced Robin to walk all the way back to the hotel with her. Sure, it took only fifteen minutes of walking a straight line and turn right around the corner, so it shouldn't be that much of a problem, but the long avenue was very inclined and made the tactician feel like she was walking up a set of stairs for fifteen minutes.<p>

Would take a bus back really hurt? It wasn't her who ate ice cream, anyway.

The tactician opened the door and walked inside the room. She furrowed her thin eyebrows at the sight of Rob's clothes sprawled all over the floor and bed. Those weren't there when she first left this morning, she could remember them leaving their room in perfect order when they left in the morning. So that could only mean...

She heard the click from the doorknob and saw Rob leaving the bathroom, completely soaked wet.

Now, if he had that towel just wrapped around his waist, instead of using it to rub on his hair to dry it, leaving the rest of his body to no imagination at all, she might have just turned around in embarassement. But he didn't. And, well, male counterpart or not, seeing him stark naked like that really did bring in the heat to her cheeks and chest.

And that was the heat of indignation.

"What's the meaning of this?!" she shrieked as she threw her books at him.

"Robin?! Ouch!" he winced, covering himself from her attacks. "I-I thought you would..."

"By the gods, have some decency and cover yourself already!"

He did was he was told without a second thought and wrapped the towel around his waist. "Was it really necessary for you to throw your stuff at me?" he asked.

"Yes."

"You know I didn't do it on purpose," Rob groaned, picking up the books that were now open on the floor. "Would it kill you to just turn around?"

"I... No," she admited, taking the books from his hands, but stil avoiding eye contact. "Just... Be more careful next time, alright?"

"How was I supposed to know you would return so soon?"

"How was I supposed to know you would be taking a bath in the middle of the afternoon?" she refuted. "Why were you taking a bath anyway?"

"I've felt like it."

"Right... You're not going to change in the bathroom?"

"I was here first," Rob shrugged his shoulders. "You know how I don't like changing in such a tiny space. If you have a problem, you go hide."

"That's stupid! I'm not going to do that, when you're the only one who needs privacy," she crossed her arms. "You sure you're okay with me here?"

"Stop making such a drama. I trust you," he smirked. "Unless you're actually interested in peeking?"

"Just go change yourself already," Robin quickly went to sit over her bed, with her back turned to him.

Rob didn't know if it was his impression, but he could swear that Robin seemed way too worked up in this situation. He could understand why, but not to this magnitude. He wouldn't lie to himself and say that he was completely fine with changing in front of her, but for crying out loud, it shouldn't be this uncomfortable. They shared the same room, the same name and the same past, he shouldn't feel like a complete stranger to her.

In all honesty, though, he shouldn't enjoy seeing her flustered like this. She looked kind of cute. Rob kept casting quick glances at her while he put on his shirt and pants, half-expecting a tentative turn of head from the other, but she remained firm in her position, looking more like a statue than a person.

The silence between the two became unbearable at that point. Robin couldn't understand what was taking him so long, however, maybe it was her own nervousness that made time seem to pass slower. "So, how was your training with Lucina?" she asked rather quietly.

"Good, I guess," Rob answered as her walked towards her. "She's very nervous, so she's trying to practice at every given opportunity."

"Heh, that's really like her."

"You can turn around now, you know? Unless seeing my bare arms and feet makes you embarassed," the male tactician joked.

Robin gave a sheepish smile and turned around. She saw him wearing much more casual clothing compared to what he usually wore during the day for a battle, and she would have asked why, but then she remembered that they wouldn't be having any kind of brawls in the next couple of days, so it only made sense for him to not bother putting on his heavy and complicated attire.

"Sorry for overreacting," Robin apologized as she brought her book to her chest. "And for hitting you in the face."

"It's okay," he said, sitting by her said and causing her to slightly inch away. "I'm sure it was all payback for me accidentally walking on you before."

"Yeah, it was exactly that. Now we're even," she joked along.

Rob tried to let out a chuckle, but no sound escaped from his mouth. There was something strange that stirred on his chest, though he didn't know exactly why. It wasn't the first time he felt like that, but something about the awkward silence they were in, just the two of them alone and him being this close to her, it just made the sensation stronger now.

That worried him, to say the least.

Robin's face at that point became completely blank and she seemed to demonstrate no emotion whatsoever, her mind drifting off to somewhere else. He tried to get a silent answer from those sharp brown eyes of hers, with little to no results.

"So, did you find anything good in the mall?" he asked.

"Just a couple of books," she showed the copy she held so tightly. "I can lend those to you once I finish them."

"Ah... Sure, thanks."

"By the way, I'm pretty sure Shulk's already finished with his battles," Robin said, hastily getting up from her bed. "You want to come with me and find him?"

"As much as I would love to see him complain about Bowser's side smash attack and how broken it is," Rob shook his head and went to lay down on his own bed. "I'm kind of tired. Go on ahead, I'll stay here and rest for a while."

"Oh, okay then," she said, leaving her books on the bed desk. "Sleep well, Rob."

What happened next was... Something. As soon as he closed his eyes, he felt very soft lips being planted on his forehead. It was quick and light, and really, if he was even slightly asleep he wouldn't have felt them at all, but he did. And it messed up his heartbeat badly.

Rob opened his eyes in confusion, but as soon as he did that, he could only catch a glimpse of Robin closing the door and leaving the room.

Well then...

Now he couldn't rest. Thanks for that, Robin.

He should probably pick his dirty clothes up, now that he was already here.

* * *

><p><strong>I have the feeling I'm emphasizing a lot more on what Rob's going through and that isn't what I want to. So I will try to write more about her point of view too. By the way, yeah, Robin has a high tendency of accidentally seeing naked guys (I'm looking at you, Chrom). <strong>

**I also like to think Kirby likes to sleep on just about anything. He's like a cute pink kitty.**


	4. Chapter 4

It wasn't always that Shulk was invaded by a sudden wish for him to just drop dead where he was. Many could call him a quiet pessimist, yes, but he never wanted to stop living as much as he wanted now. Sure, the battle he had against Bowser, Ganondorf and Charizard was already enough to make his spirits go down, even with him abusing his Shield Arts, so he could stand a chance of not being sent flying away after being hit by Bowser's side smash attack and Charizard's Flare Blitz. But what really made his day turn from bad to worse was having to fight Sonic with only explosive items turned on. And he still had another fight (his last) in three hours. It was a miracle how his eardrums were still intact.

He needed to rest so much that he couldn't care less about going to grab lunch, be it on the cafeteria or going out to some fast food restaurant Sonic had invited him to go with him. He wanted to shut off from the world for a while. And it seemed he was going to get what he wished for. All he had to do was take the elevator and...

BLING!

"Shulk! There you are!"

The double chromatic elevator doors slowly opened, revealing a rather agitated Robin inside. Shulk muffled a tired sigh, as he wasn't even in the mood to talk to her, and let himself be dragged by the arm to inside the elevator. He saw her mash the button for the doors to close and decided to rest with his back to the wall, his tired blue eyes trying to figure it out what was bothering her. The Homs didn't want to be rude or anything, so the faster he helped her in whatever problem she was having, the faster he could send her away.

It wasn't as if he found Robin annoying. Quite the contrary. Robin was one of his first friends he made when he started living in the hotel and quickly became one of his closest ones. Their quieter and more collected nature was what helped in them identifying with each other, but it was their curiosity and passion for knowledge of each other's world that really brought them together. It was exactly for that reason why he was willing to put up with whatever problems she was having.

"Ah, first, were you going somewhere?" she asked, once they started going up. "Am I interrupting something, or...?"

"I was going back to my room, but it's fine," he lied between teeth. "What's the matter?"

"We can discuss this in your room then," she took a deep breath as they arrived on the third floor. "If that's okay with you."

Yes, he was more than okay with it. That was a wonderful idea.

"Sure, if you insist."

Shulk already had more or less an idea of what she wanted to talk about with him, if he took into account the common subject they always discussed when Robin had that guilty look on her face. He would let her start, just out of politeness. Thanks to Shulk's room being not that far away from the elevators, they arrived there in a couple of seconds. They checked the corridor just in case somebody was passing by and interpreted Robin walking in Shulk's room the wrong way and after seeing that everything was clear, the two swordsmen entered the room.

No matter how much she has been there, Robin would always be impressed by all the gadgets that was spread on the floor and desk. Shulk has always been a big enthusiast when it came to technology and could spend hours upon hours just studying and finding ways to create new weapons and gadgets. Unfortunately, that enthusiasm was spent too much on studying and none on actually organizing his room (another thing he and Robin had so much in common). At least he started pilling all of his stuff on one corner and on the desk, so the cleaning lady wouldn't have to suffer anymore when she would be doing her job.

"So, what did you want to say?" the Homs asked as he flopped on his bed, a heavy wave of tiredness hitting him. "I'm all ears."

"Shulk, I just don't know what else to do!" Robin sat on the only chair in the room, her chin resting over her crossed arms.

"Is it about Rob again? Where is he anyway?"

"He's sleeping back in our room. Oh gods, Shulk, you have no idea how close I was to kissing him this time," the tactician buried her face in her arms.

That last sentence sure did peak his interest. "You were?!" he asked as he sat up. "What exactly happened?"

"We were in our room and I asked if he wanted to come with me and try to find you, because I knew your fights were probably over. And then he said that he was feeling tired and was going to sleep," she explained, the pausing between her sentences getting bigger as she proceeded. "And I don't know what happened, okay? He closed his eye and I just kissed his forehead, but that's just because I was almost kissing his lips."

"Oh... Well, that's awkward," the seer rubbed the back of his neck. "Why didn't you stop then?"

"Because I'm an idiot."

"Stop being so harsh on yourself. How did he react?"

"I don't know," she gave a short sigh. "I made sure to get out of there before he could say anything. I didn't even look at his face."

"Robin, you're making everything worse for yourself," Shulk groaned, flopping on his bed again. "What are you going to say if he asks why did you do that?"

"I'll find a way to deny."

Shulk would never have thought that he would have wanted to suffocate himself with his pillow because of Robin, but he had to control himself to not do it. I has been a while since Robin has been borrowing his ears to talk on and on about her crush on Rob. Or rather, complain about said crush. Every time she would say how wrong it felt, and every time he would have to reassure her that it was okay, it happened, nobody had control over their hearts and that nobody got to choose who they liked.

Honestly, it was tiring him even more. It made it even more frustrating that he couldn't do anything about it and help her. And she couldn't even try to forget him, because they both lived under the same roof.

"Of all the guys around here," she mumbled. "It had to be him?"

It made sense Robin would fall for him, in a way. The two were close and got along smoothly, both being enthusiasts about strategy, books and, according to what Robin said one day, spending a good chunk of time discussing about the relationships between their comrades in their army. If Shulk didn't know any better, he could easily take them for a couple. Or, at least, they had very good potential to be one.

Too bad it was their extreme similarities in appearance and personality that made Robin so anxious and hesitant. He could understand the reason why she wasn't very fond of the idea of falling for Rob, as both were two sides of the same coin. All Shulk could do was listen... And try to not fall asleep in his bed.

"Robin, someday you will have to deal with these feelings, you know?" the blond seer yawned. "Before you end up imploding and doing something you'll regret."

"He would probably be disgusted..." she mumbled.

Shulk didn't answer anymore, too tired to think of something new to tell her. They both knew one day Robin would have to stop running away from her feelings and deal with Rob. Too bad things were easier said than done.

"And I still need to fight him next week..."

"Hmm..."

"Because of that stupid default rule..."

"..."

"Shulk?"

She let out a sad smile as she saw the Homs already practically asleep. He was probably beyond exhausted, and her she was, forcing him to listen to her same old problems. Better let him rest and take her time alone to just go walk around and clear her mind. Quietly and swiftly, she exited the room and made her way to the ground floor.

Maybe now it was a good time to drop by the gym and beat Sandbag up.

* * *

><p>Lucina finished her lunch in record time and rested her back on the chair, taking a few couple of minutes to organize her thoughts and plan what else she wanted to do before her match with Luigi began. She looked around her, Smashers and Miis enjoying each other's company while they ate up every avaiable minute of lunch being served at the spacious cafeteria and their conversations filled the air.<p>

Compared to everyone else, Lucina seemed so alone, being one of the very few people who ate by herself. Usually she would have lunch with Rob or Peach, but one was resting in his room and the other was Naga knows where, probably spending time with Zelda. She had no idea what to do to pass time, not alone.

She could always go back to training... No, she wouldn't do that. Even someone like her could get tired of training after a while. When she was still heated up was one thing, but now that she had completely calmed down, the last thing Lucina wanted was to get back to practicing. She had a fight coming up in one hour, she would better rest.

With nothing else to do, she decided to waste her time on the recrational space. It wasn't exactly one of her favorite places in the hotel, what with how crowded it usually was and how difficult it was to watch tv or do just about anything without having to deal with another person trying to run over her and decide what they would watch. The blue haired swordswoman never would have thought that an activity so simple as gazing at a screen could be so stressfull to her. But it was her last resort and it was better than just going back to her room watch the ceiling, so that was what she was going to do.

She made her way to the recreational room, having to cross the patio because it was the shortest route to get there, since all she had to do was walk a straigth line. However, before she could even get to half her trajectory, she heard an alarmed scream coming not far away from her. "Lady, watch out!" it was the voice of a young boy, unfamiliar to Lucina.

Lucina quickly turned around, bracing herself for the worst, as she didn't have Falchion with her, all she could do was get in a defensive position. However, when nothing happened, she hesitantly opened one eye to see what was happening and saw a floating baseball ball floating in the air a little above her head.

"What the...?"

"Ah, I'm so sorry!" a young blond boy apologized, his hand motioning for the ball to float towards him. "We almost hit you! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, don't worry," Lucina said, wide-eyed at the boy's amazing ability to make the object float. "Um..."

"Uh, well, I'll tell my friend to be more careful," he said sheepishly, his gaze switching between the ball and Lucina. "Have... Have a nice day, miss."

"Lucas!"

The two turned to where the new voice came from and saw a boy as young as the one who was talking to Lucina, walking right towards them, red cap covering his messy black hair and a bat in hand. She dug a little into her memory, to when they had some sort of Smasher meet-up so she could know the names of her fellow fighters, and remembered that the red-capped boy was named Ness. Was the blond boy (Lucas, was that what Ness called him?) also a Smasher? She could remember seeing him walking around the hotel, but never really saw him doing any fightings.

"Oh, hey, Lucina!" Ness greeted with a toothy grin. "Nice meeting ya here!"

"Likewise."

"Ness, be more careful next time with your homeruns!" his friend scolded. "You almost hit her."

"Aw, geez, sorry about that."

"No need to apologize," Lucina smiled at them. "Pardon me for the sudden question, but are you two sibblings?"

"What? Oh, no, no we aren't," Lucas said, waving his hands. "We're not related or anything. We're just friends."

"Lucas and I are from the same world, but from different timelines," Ness said, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. "And he's my best friend here."

"I see..." the swordswoman mused. "I don't think I remember ever seeing you in the battlefield, Lucas. Are you participating in this tournament as well?"

"Ah, no, not this time."

"This time?"

"Yeah, Lucas here was in the last tournament," the red capped boy said enthusiatically, before his voice made a sudden 180 turn. "But he didn't want to participate in this one."

"Ness, don't start this again..."

"But you were such an awesome fighter! We kept spamming PK Thunders and PK Fires until people started hating us fighting together!"

"I'm fine like this, Ness," the blonde said, shaking his arm off from him. "Besides, you know people don't like me enough that they want me back."

"Pfff, they are idiots," Ness pouted. "Just because we are both psychic and had similar powers..."

"Similar powers?" Lucina tilted her head to the side. So their casual clothing wasn't the only thing that matched.

"Yeah, Ness and I had a fighting style that was very similar," Lucas said. "We both rely heavily on PSI based attacks."

"I don't see how that can be a bad thing."

"It can be a bad thing when people start accusing you of not trying hard enough to be original."

"...Original?"

"They just kept saying I was a blonde Ness," Lucas sighed. "I didn't like having to fight against all those people and I still have nightmares about going against Ganondorf," a cold shiver ran down his spine at the mere mention of the King of Evil. "So when people started saying all those stuff about me being a tasteless clone, I didn't want to keep going."

"So you had a few couple of moves that were the same, big deal. You used more PSI powers than I and was actually better than me at it!" Ness went on, completely ignoring the discomfort that continued to grow on Lucina's face. "People are idiots. They kept accusing you of being a ripoff, but you were a lot more different from me than, say, Roy from Marth. Now THAT guy wasn't even trying."

"Uh, Ness..."

"His only difference was that his strength was on the base of the sword, but he was identical to Marth," he ignored Lucas' glare for him to stop talking. "Oh, and he had fire. That was the only thing that really made him different."

Lucas quickly pinned him from the side, making his friend immediatelly shut up. The black-haired boy's face instantly paled once he took two seconds to stop and think about what he was ranting about... Right in front of Lucina.

And by the distraught look on her eyes, he could see he had screwed up big time.

"I-I didn't mean it like that!"

"Ness, please, there's no need to try to explain yourself," Lucina raised her hand. "I am aware of how similar my fighting style is to the Hero King. But, hey, it's as you said. People may not notice the differences, but if Master Hand thought I was good enough to have my own slot, then that must mean I have already my own identity."

"Yeah, exactly," Ness said sheepshly.

"Well, if you two excuse me, I must be on my way," she let out a forced smile. "Be careful with your game, alright?"

The Ylissean turned around and walked away, leaving the two awkward boys behind. Ness at that point didn't know where to bury his face to hide his embarrassment, and Lucas' reprimending glare only made him feel worse.

"Did it have to be Roy?"

"I'm sorry."

"You could have picked just about ANYONE else, but you had to pick Roy."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't say sorry to me," he said, gesturing to the swordswoman who was already far away. "Say sorry to her. She's the one you implied to be a carbon copy of Marth."

Ness nodded, not in the mood to continue their game of baseball. Granted, it was starting to get stale and kind of boring with just the two of them, but this encounter with Lucina killed the mood entirely.

Did it really have to be Roy? Dark Pit was around and he was a literal clone, he could have used that guy as an argument. Yeah, he would make a mental note on that one.

As for Lucina, after that little chat, all she wanted to do was go back to her room and think better about her presentation as a fighter. She remember being so happy with Master Hand's decision to make her a separate fighter from Marth, but now that she thought about, he did take a long time to consider that. She had to argue and argue with him, trying her best to prove her point to him that she was not just a female version of the Melee veteran. She had her own history, personality and abilities.

But that was the original Lucina. Here in the world of Smash, maybe she was just created to be a long-haired version of Marth...

And she thought she was okay with that. Up until she met Lucas and Ness, she had no issues with her being too similar to him. Lucina was actualy pretty excited to be this close to someone she idolized so much. But with what Lucas just said about how people treated him, she was starting to have her doubts.

As she made her way back to her room, she bumped into Rob in one of the corridors. "Ah, Lucina", he called out to her. "Have you seen Robin around?"

"No, I haven't. Why do you ask?"

"There are some things we need to discuss."

"I see... But, no, I haven't seen her around today," Lucina said, walking past by him. "I wish you luck on your search."

Rob watched the young swordswoman leave with curious eyes. Lucina seemed rather agitated, but wherever that was something he should be concerned about or not, he couldn't know. It didn't help that he was a lot more worried about talking to Robin than anything else. He hoped it was nothing so serious.

* * *

><p><strong>Ness' words do not reflect my actual thoughts on clones, even though Roy totally was one. A lot of my favorite characters in Smash are actually clones. I used Roy a lot in Melee and I prefer Lucas over Ness in Brawl, but hey, I'm writing all of these based on the fandom's opinions. <strong>

**Oh, and no, Lucina's not going to have any romantic subplot. Just getting that out of the way before it even got in the way. I'm giving her a rest after her little adventure in the "The Way She Acts". Sorry not sorry about the shameless self-promotion.**

**Instead, she's going through a different emotional turmoil. And Shulk just slept through and lost his fight. Sucks to be him.**

**To the anonymous reviewer: I was actually refering to Bowser's forward smash. You know, that one where he dropkicks you and can make you sky rocket at even lower percentage. **


	5. Chapter 5

**Oh, well, classes have officially started, but there's still time until I start to drown myself into my studies until I'm crying in the corner about how I'm going to fail. Anyway, thanks again for all the wonderful reviews. I can't say enough how amazing you guys are!**

* * *

><p>"What to buy..."<p>

"Why not both?"

"Both?" the white haired mage gave a smug grin. "We could, but then you can't complain anymore about getting fat."

"Me? You're the one that keeps devouring these things like a troglodyte!"

"Stop sounding like Maribelle."

"Just put these cookies on the basket and let's get moving."

Rob refused to wear off that smug grin of his and put the two packages of chocolate chips on the basket he was carrying. What Robin had said was true, but he would be damned if he didn't find an opportunity to mess with her. There was something in the way she got flustered that brought a certain joy to his heart.

It was a cloudy Sunday afternoon and the two Robins needed to restock their frigde with water bottles, frizzy drinks and a healthy dose of the junk food at the local grocery store, small treats that they liked to eat when it was late at night and they were too engrossed on a book or on the defective television that only showed the rural and religion channels to go to sleep (to their defence, it wasn't so much about the cattle auctions or about watching some priest preach about some unknown belief to them, as it was more of a problem of insomnia). They could buy and eat what was already avaiable and collecting dust in the depths of the fridge, but since they had the feeling they would have to sell their kidneys to the black market just to have enough money to buy a can of soda, the cheaper alternative was to buy from the outside and bring their food to the room.

Robin kept going on ahead, giving a last check through the shelves in order to see if there wasn't anything else worth getting, while Rob kept walking on slower steps and checking their basket to see if they didn't forget getting anything they liked. His hand stopped over a sack of gumi bears and his mouth contorted in disgust. He never understood how Robin could like those dreadful candies that felt like he was chewing rubber with corants, but he just put up with it.

He found it kind of interesting how they had different tastes when it came to food or other small trivial things. Despite buying different food, they still had to pay with the same cash, though.

"Okay, I guess that's it," Robin said, walking towards her male counterpart. "Is there anything else you want?"

"I think we already have enough," he said, showing off all the goods they got. "I'm not sure how we're going to stuff all of these in the fridge."

"Half of these are chips. We'll just stack them on the desk or inside the wardrobe," she shrugged her shoulders. "Peach is probably already waiting in line, let's go."

The two went to wait in line to check out their shopping, but couldn't find Peach there, so they agreed one of them would go talk to her once they finished paying. That, or they coud just wait for her in line, because the Mii at one of the two avaiable cashiers was having some troubles with the machine and it would take some time for them to get there. Not that they would complain that much, considering shopping here was way better than paying for overpriced food at the supermarket. It was a good thing Peach took them to that small, barely noticeable store, or they would be getting only half the stuff they wanted.

It was still better than buying from the hotel.

"So, Robin, have you thought about what I said before?" Rob asked.

"About...?"

"About my suggestion of us trying to convince Master Hand on giving us different spots."

"I don't know, Rob. If only we have tried this strategy of us tweeking our abilities earlier, we might have had a bigger chance. But now, with our fighting being tomorrow..."

"It's like they say, better late than never, right?" he insisted. "Besides, what do we have to lose?"

"Us, nothing. But I get the impression Master Hand might lose his patience with us," Robin rubbed her arm and looked away. "I don't know why you're so bothered by this."

"Why I'm so bothered? And you aren't?"

"I was at first, I guess. But the more I thought about it, there really is no reason to be THIS upset," she paused for a while. "Well, okay, maybe I'm not entirely over it, but, hey, we compete all the time, right? This shouldn't feel any different."

Except they only competed in games or anything else that didn't involve stabbing or electrocuting each other.

"Even with the loser becoming the other's shadow?" he asked instead.

"It's not that bad."

Maybe not for her, but for Rob it was as bad as he was making it out to be. He didn't want to hurt her. He didn't want to think of Robin as his shadow, nor that he was hers. "Besides," he heard Robin say quietly. "If we get to be separate fighters, we might get separate rooms."

"Wait, what was that last part?"

"What?"

"You said something about our room?"

"Ah, you know exactly what I said," she confessed, the embarrassement appearant on her face. "I'm not going to repeat myself."

Rob gave a smug, toothy grin at the girl by his side. It wasn't as if he didn't know Robin liked his company, but it was always great to listen her admiting it. Robin was never the best person to show affection towards others, so he needed to enjoy those moments when she did. Even if it was a simple 'I really enjoy your company'.

Which reminded him of that kiss to his forehead and suddenly he got confused again. Could anyone blame him, though? Robin was never the touchy-feely kind of person and that kiss definitely was way out-of-character for her. He wanted to ask her why she did that, but was silenced before he could say anything by a light tap on his shoulder.

"Ahem," someone coughed from behind.

The two mages jumped in surprise and turned their heads, only to find Peach patiently pointing to the only avaiable cashier. Unlike the Robins, her basket had only a couple of shampoo bottles and hair-conditioner. "You're next, if you don't mind," she said.

"Oh, right," Robin said and gently tugged Rob's coat sleeve.

Once everyone was done paying for their food, the three Smashers left the small store and started heading their way back. The grocery store was located a few blocks away from the hotel, almost unoticeable in the middle of the big buildings that surrounded it. How Peach, of all Smashers, found that little spot was still a mystery to the Robins. But, then again, despite being of a royal lineage, Peach was known for being very controlling of her money and how she spent it, so maybe it was her smell over the cheap prices that guided her there. That's what Rob liked to imagine how it happened.

"I couldn't help but notice you two talking about trying to convince Master Hand on giving you separate spots in the roster?" the princess commented. "Is that right?"

"Rob suggested we tweeked out our special abilities to show him we're different enough," Robin said, taking one of the bags from her counterpart's hand in order to help him. "Maybe change Elwind to Arcwind, or cast Arcfire in a horizontal line..."

"I have no idea what you are talking about."

"We are thinking that maybe if we use our magic differently..."

"Rob, if I know Master Hand well, all you're going to do is annoy him," Peach warned. "I say this from personal experience. It is very, VERY hard to change his mind when it comes to suggestions on how he should be running the tournaments."

"Personal experience?" he asked. "What happened to you?"

"Nothing that bad. It's just that I kept pestering him about including a very good friend of mine into the roster, ever since the Melee days," she gave a bitter smile. "I continued doing that until Brawl was around, but even when that was over, all he did was call me to his office and lecture me about how tired he was about my insisting and that I knew nothing, that her being included would never happen because he saw no potential or importance in her. After that, I just kind of... Let it go, I suppose. I was tired of insisting after all these years," Peach let out a sigh. "It's a shame, because I'm sure her presence would make a lot of people happy here."

"O-Oh, it's really a shame," was all Robin could say.

"But there's still a chance, right? I mean, Lucina..."

"You better believe that it wasn't her who convinced him on giving her her own spot. Don't get me wrong, I like Master Hand and I appreciate everything he has done for us, but he doesn't listen to anyone but himself. If anything, you two should be happy that you are both included," she frowned as she looked up at the sky, a single droplet of water falling on the bridge of her nose. "Umm... There's going to be a storm soon."

About time, Rob thought. These past days have been so ugly and cloudy, he just wished it rained sooner, so the skies could clear again.

They walked faster, just in case his wish was attended.

* * *

><p><em>It started out as a fairly standard nightmare, not so different from the ones he usually had. He was standing in the middle of a street fair in the capitol of Ylisstol. The frightening and imposing figure of the Fell Dragon Grima hovering above the city and its panicking citizens. Risen were everywhere spreading chaos and killing anything that moved, building burned and collapsed, while people dropped off on the ground, their deaths as meaningful as of insects, with some corpse missing some limbs. <em>

_Typical apolyptical scenario that plagued his dreams. Nothing old, nothing new. But then the next sequence of events got... Weird. And (gods forbid) kind of exciting. But definitely weird._

_One second he was on the streets of Ylisstol, being careful to not touch anything or anyone so they wouldn't get destroyed by him, the other he found himself seated on a small wooden boat, gently floating in the calm waters of some lake at the outskirts of the city. Rob was pretty sure there were no lakes outside of Ylisstol, but he could still see the burning building in the horizon, so maybe there were lakes and he just didn't pay enough attention. Rob saw Grima flying towards him, the dragon's mighty body getting smaller and smaller the more he approached, until he was at the same height as Rob and sat at the other side of the boat._

_For some odd reason, Rob was not afraid. One could say he had finally gotten over his fear of the Fell Dragon, but actually, the only reason he wasn't afraid was because he was too occupied asking why Lucina was rowing an even smaller boat by their side. She gave a warm and encouraging smile at him and tried to get her boat closer to his, making the tactician wonder how she wasn't hitting him with her rowing._

_He wanted to ask her what she was doing there, but she beat him to it and asked: "So, what are you waiting for?"_

_"Waiting for what?"_

_"Are you or are you not going to kiss her?"_

_"What are you talking about?! Kiss Grima?" he shrieked. "Are you out of your mind?!"_

_"But, Robin, we even brought the pegasi to make this moment better," she pointed at the sky._

_Rob's eyes followed her gesture and, true enough, there were two pegasi flying in circles in the clear blue sky above them. Riding those pegasi were Cordelia and Sumia, throwing petal flowers at them. And also Peach was there, riding Yoshi in his dragon form and throwing petals too. Lucina could have warned him about that, because the dinosaur was spiting fire everywhere and burning the petals, so really, all that show did was cover his hair with ashes._

_"What's going on?" he asked, only to be answered by the distant sounds of a violin, a bongo and some uninteligeble lyrics. _

_He turned his head to where the sound came from and found Brady and Donkey Kong playing their respective intruments, while Olivia did the "favor" of singing for them._

_"We did all of this for you," Lucina said happily. "Now kiss."_

_"Lucina, I'm not kissing Grima."_

_"Who said anything about Grima?"_

_"What?"_

_It was only then when he decided to turn his attention to the being in front of him. Insstead of Grima, the person seated in front of him was now Robin. The sight of her there truly did some miracles on his agitated mood and the tactician soon found himself relaxing a bit on his seat. By the way she smiled at him, he would guess she was pleased as well._

_"So, what are you waiting for?" she asked._

_"Waiting for what?"_

_"Come on, Robin," she giggled. "You know what. We both want this."_

_He had absolutely no idea what she was talking about, but his questions died on his throat once he realized that Robin was suddenly naked, save for the heavy purple coat the two of them wore usually. She had her white hair down and her hands were positioned in such a way that it covered her just enough for his dream to not get an M rating._

_Well... That was quite the sight indeed. Any reminescent of logical thought had launched itself off the window._

_"Robin..." she leaned forward._

_"R-Robin, think about the others," he hesitated. "They are watching."_

_"What others?"_

_Lucina and everyone else suddenly were no more, with the exception of maybe Yoshi, who was too occupied floating in the water to pay any attention to his surroundings. There was nothing wrong._

_Oh, gods, seeing Robin like that really was breathtaking. He could feel his entire body heat up the closer she got._

_Screw it. Why fight back? He could hear Chrom's cries of protest in the background, but he didn't care at that point. He just wanted Robin all to himself._

But before he could do anything, before he could even take her in his arms, the tactician woke up. He didn't get up in a jump, or gasped in surprise. He simply woke up like he would in any normal day, his mind a little dizzier, but still feeling like crap as always.

"What the actual..." he muttered.

He needed water.

"Ugh..."

Rob groggily got up from his bed, the memories of his interrupted dream still fresh on his memory. The aggressive and loud noises of the thunder ripping the sky were of no bother to him as he slowly dragged his feet to their fridge. The soothing sound of the raindrops from the rainstorm did nothing to make him feel better and he grabbed the only bottle of mineral water in the middle of all the frizzy drinks.

He gave a big gulp and casually glanced over to where Robin slept, a light smile appearing on his face as she seemed to be sleeping peacefully. That, and the fact that there were some tuffs of hair inside her mouth, which was always a funny sight to him. After drinking half the bottle, he put the water back on the fridge and absentmindly went to sit on his bed. Rob looked once again at his roommate and, after a good couple of minutes of staring at the ceilling, decided to go back to sleep.

Rob gave a long and disappointed sigh as he admited quietly that he wanted to go back to his dream and continue from where it stopped.

* * *

><p>"A vision?"<p>

Shulk was used to having visions of a nearby future at the most unusual times, it was almost his specialty (apart from being a seer to begin with), but they usually didn't happen this early in the morning. Most of the visions usually were about him and were actually really helpful during battles and when he wanted to avoid some uncomfortable encounter with some Smashers he didn't feel like talking to.

However, there some rare moments where his visions had nothing to do with him and instead showed what would happen to the ones that were closer to him. The vision he had happened to be one of those rare ones, where he saw both Robins fighting each other at the Arena Ferox stage. He was rather surprised by how intense it looked like and assumed it to be one of those fights Robin mentioned she would have to participate in order to dispute for the default spot. From the looks of things, it looked like Rob was with the advantage in hand, as he kept pushing Robin over the edge with Arcfire. But nothing was definitive, and Robin could very well turn the fight around into her favor.

Maybe he should warn her about that.

Maybe he shouldn't give her any preference and not screw with Rob's strategy game.

The young seer grabbed his Monado sword that he carefully places at the left corner of his room and left the place. On his way to the elevators, he found Lucina also waiting for one of them to arrive, her hand firmly gripping the sheath that carried her Falchion.

"Oh, Lucina, hello," Shulk warmly greeted her.

"Good morning, Shulk," Lucina nodded her head at him and went back to staring at the door.

"You going to get some breakfast or you already ate?"

"I don't have time for breakfast. I need to get to the training rooms as soon as I can," she replied.

"Is something the matter?"

"There are some things I need to take care of. The sooner I start, the better," Lucina bit her lip and then turned to him. "What about you, Shulk? Were you going to have breakfast?"

"Yeah, even though I'm not that hungry," he said with a shrug of shoulders.

"Would you like to come with me to the gym, then? I was thinking about practicing alone, but having a partner would be a lot better."

Shulk had to admit that he admired Lucina's discipline a lot. She was always practicing and fighting, always cool and level-headed as she tried her best to become a better fighter. He wished he had her dedication. Maybe training with her would help him getting more motivation to fight, so he silently accepted her invitation.

One thing they had in common, though. They really should watch over their health and eating habits better.

* * *

><p><strong>The dream sequence was something I really didn't plan out initially, but I love writing about trippy sequences, so there you go. Initially I was planning on making Rob wake up in the middle of the night, open the fridge and realize out of the blue: "holy shit, I think I have a crush on her", only to then close the fridge, lay down on his bed and regret his life choices. But dreams are always a great plot point too. Oh, and Peach was refering to Daisy, in case someone didn't get it which friend she was talking about.<strong>

**Next chapter I promise we'll get to the Robins' actual competition for the spot.**

**And I'm not sure if I'm going to do this every chapter or not, but I'm curious, so here's a question for you all:**

**-We all had that one dream that was just so weird, that we still have it memorized after a long time. What was the weirdest, most fucked up dream you ever had?**


	6. Chapter 6

**Before I start this chapter, I want to thank Makokam for beta reading this chapter and helping me out with my grammar and sentences. Thank you so much for your help, you're awesome!**

**I'm also glad that I got to write a slightly longer chapter this time. I don't know why, but I really needed it.**

* * *

><p>It was by sheer luck that Ness activated his PSI Magnet shield in time to absorb Lucario's fully charged Aura Sphere. Had he been one second late, the attack would have hit him hard and the psychic would be seeing stars for sure, especially since the Pokemon was already pretty beaten-up at that point and his aura attacks grew stronger in proportion to his injuries. The upside of being attacked by such a strong aura energy was that, the stronger the attack, the better his shield worked on healing him with it.<p>

That alone brought some sort of satisfaction to him in an otherwise frustrating battle. It wasn't so much about Lucario being a difficult opponent, as it was more him having to fight in the Pac Land stage, one of the most annoying stages he ever had the displeasure of being thrown in. And that was saying something, considering he had to worry about having a brawl scheduled to happen on stages like Big Blue and 75m on the last tournaments. Being in Pac Land was the same experience of walking on a very slow trend mill. Sure he had all the time in the world to keep up his pace and walk along with the moving floor, but if he got distracted too much, he would hurt himself. In this case, he would be thrown off the moving stage and his ego would hurt more than anything.

Feeling more energized, Ness jumped over Lucario's head and gave a swift kick to his back, making the fighting/steel type Pokemon fly from the brute force of his opponent's kick combined with his PSI power. The black-haired boy gave a sigh of relief as he took Lucario's last life, thus making him the winner of that battle.

The stage suddenly started to dissolve, leaving both Ness and Lucario in an empty space, with nothing but the white ground beneath them and the cloudy blue sky above them. Lucario stepped aside to give Ness the spotlight, giving a good congratulatory clapping to his opponent as the announcer shouted the winner's name. All formalities aside, the two Smashers then left the stage through the exit at the very far left of the place, walking down a large ramp until they were at the door of the stadium.

"Man, I can't believe I'm still shaking," Ness laughed nervously, showing off his trembling hand to Lucario. "I thought I was dead with that Aura Sphere."

"_Your defense had an impeccable __timing__, I must say,_" the Pokemon simply commented. "_You did an_ _excellent __job__ today."_

"Heh, thanks," he gave a toothy grin. "So, you going back to the hotel or are you going to stick around?"

"_There is nothing around this region that makes me want to stay, let's head back_."

The two left the big stadium and walked towards the nearest taxi point. The stadium was about ten minutes away from the hotel, and they could very well get the bus, but none of the two felt like getting inside a transport flooding with people returning from their jobs, having to squish themselves to fit in and being overwhelmed with the smell of sweaty armpits that couldn't resist an entire day of working hard.

"By the way, Lucario," Ness said as he and the Pokemon searched for a cab. "Have you seen Lucina around these days?"

"_Who is Lucina again?_"

"That girl that looks a lot like Marth."

"_I see... My apologies, but I have not seen her today."_

"It's okay... Thanks, anyway."

Ever since his encounter with Lucina three days ago, Ness couldn't take the look of disappointment and discomfort on the older woman's face from his mind. He just wanted to defend Lucas from stupid accusations, but ended up making everything worse by accidentally trash-talking Lucina's way of fighting. And while he was not very close to her, Ness could tell that Lucina was a proud warrior, so insulting her fighting style must have been really harsh for her.

He needed to apologize, but it was kind of difficult to do so when he couldn't find her anywhere. Ness hoped she wasn't as upset as he imagined her to be.

Lucina was not as upset as he thought she was. But she wanted to do something about her "clone" status regardless.

"You are going to change your entire move set?!" Shulk asked in disbelief after Lucina finished explaining their training regimen for the morning.

"Yes, I will," she said with a confident smile. "We still have about two weeks until the tournament starts, and my fighting style is still rather mysterious to most people, since they only got glimpses of what I can do. I say I can still change in time for my debut."

"But we've been practicing the past months to be in perfect shape," the seer said, still baffled. "How do you expect to change and master your new style so easily?"

"Are you implying that I can't master a new fighting style?"

"I'm not implying anything, I'm saying this directly to you," Shulk bit his tongue, realizing the harsh tone in his voice. "I mean, you can try, but you're not going to master it _in time_."

"Shulk, if you are not going to help me, you can always go train by yourself," Lucina groaned.

"Lucina, look..." Shulk pause awkwardly, raising his hands as if trying to make a point. "I will help you if you are so determined, but I still can't understand why you want to change so badly when you are already great."

"I'm just... Not satisfied with what I've become as a Smasher," she crossed her arms sheepishly. "I want to change as much as I can."

Shulk knew he wouldn't be able to talk her out of that idea. For someone who wanted to change as a fighter so badly, it was ironic how she refused to change her mind. But he wanted to start training soon, so then he could call it a day and go back to his room. Maybe a good hour session of training would convince Lucina otherwise and she would drop that idea.

He took the Monado he had on his back and got into his fighting stance, signalizing that he was ready whenever she was. Agreeing or not with her decision, Shulk still needed training.

* * *

><p>One hour after lunch time, the Robins finally went to Master Hand's office, but not before spending a few minutes delaying their meeting out of sheer nervousness.<p>

"Good morning, Robin," Master Hand greeted the two mages in front of him. "Hope you had an excellent weekend."

"Could have been worse," Rob replied, rather salty.

"Good," he replied nonchalantly, almost as if he didn't actually hear to the bitterness in his voice. "Alright, then. Today you will have your first battle. Please follow me, I shall be escorting you to the Smash Run grounds."

"Smash Run?" they asked in unison.

Smash Run was a new game mode that Master Hand had introduced to the public. Four Smashers would be selected to compete against each other in a very wide open maze that required quite a bit of exploring and visiting it repeatedly to fully understand its design. Despite competing against each other, the fighters were never to bump into each other, instead, they would be facing against hordes of monsters and enemies that hailed from the Smashers' worlds of origin. The more enemies they defeat, the more power boosts they got. The more power boosts they got, the stronger they became for the final showdown they would have after the five minutes of running around the maze were over. That would be the only time the fighters would actually interact with each other.

Despite the interesting premise, it wasn't a mode that was used frequently by the Smashers, as they were too occupied with their own battles than worrying about a game that wasn't even going to be in the official tournament. It was, however, very popular among Miis, who were not official fighters and just participated in battles for the fun of it.

The Robins' surprise sure made them forget for a moment that they were angry at Master Hand. They followed the floating hand to the giant maze that was located in a big open stadium behind the hotel. The stadium was almost as big as the hotel, having to accommodate inside the maze. The entrance and the registration halls would usually be filled with two lines of Miis waiting for their turn to take a shot at the game, one for Miis who were staying at the hotel and could participate for free and the other for other Miis who had to pay for an entry fee.

The halls were usually crowded and noisy with conversation, but usually very peaceful. With Master Hand reserving the place for that hour solely for the Robins to use it, suddenly the place felt awkwardly quiet. Rob remember playing Smash Run one time and, while interesting, was not exactly his idea of fun and avoided it ever since. Maybe it had to do with the fact that the final showdown was a race to the finish challenge, and he was one of the slowest people in Smash.

Having to race against Captain Falcon was a nightmare. He still had no idea how he won with an advantage of 0.1 second over the racer.

"For your first day, you two shall compete against each other in a game of Smash Run," Master Hand explained. "It will be just the two of you, no special powers or items and instead of fighting for five minutes, you will be in the maze for seven minutes."

"That sounds way too much for a round of Smash Run," Robin crossed her arms.

"That is because there will be no final showdown. The point in this duel is to see how you fair against the enemies with no advantages. The one who gets more power boosts and a higher score wins," their boss said.

"I see..." Rob said with a hand on his chin.

"You may begin now or wait a few couple of minutes to clear your minds, if you want," Master Hand said as he floated away. "Good luck in there. I shall be observing from afar."

Rob felt a temporary relief with what Master Hand had planned for them. He wouldn't have to face Robin in the battlefield, even if only for today, giving him a little more time to think over his situation.

There was no way of denying that what he felt towards his female counterpart was way more than simple friendship. That, in itself, was all kinds of shades of fucked up, but then again, Rob was a pretty fucked up person to begin with. There were worse things that could have happened to him then falling for Robin. Deciding if he should confess his feelings to her or if he should try to forget them was more difficult. It wasn't as if he expected her to return them, but confessing would still lift that heavy weight he felt on his shoulders. Then again, he might lose her friendship and that wasn't a very thrilling thought to him.

He was so tempted though.

"Concentrate on today's battle, dammit..."

"So, Rob," Robin called out, completely oblivious to the other's muttering. "You want to start now, or you want to wait?"

"Let's start now and get this over with."

Robin nodded and went on ahead towards the door that would take them to the maze. From there, she would teleport to a random point and then begin. With a heavy consciousness, she turned around and gave him a small wave with a bittersweet smile planted on her thin lips. Wanting to do that or not, she would do her best and pass this Smash Run with flying colors.

Three minutes later, all she wanted to do was survive the hellhole she'd accidentally thrown herself into. Robin was a skilled tactician, always coming up with the best plans that favored the best outcome. But sometimes, she allowed herself to take risks and play not so safe, which could turn out to be the best thing she came up with, or the worst, which, in this case, was deciding to fight off a Clubberskull in a closed section of the maze.

It was a good idea, at first. The Clubberskull had spawned in an area where the whole ground would catch fire every once in five seconds, as if it was one giant oven, save for the floating platforms that served as a safe spot for the player. All Robin had to do was make the Clubberskull fall on the ground and keep spamming it with Arcfires, Thorons and Elwind spells, while the flaming floor would take care of the rest and then all she had to do was collected the sweet, sweet rewards it would drop once it was defeated. There were no other enemies around, she had gathered quite a lot of Attack, Special and Defense boosts to keep her safe and she had her tomes and Levin Sword fully charged, it was the perfect plan.

But then she decided to open up a treasure chest that was in one of the platforms while she took care of the Clubberskull. Except that treasure chest wasn't a treasure chest at all, but a Mimicutie in disguise. Robin could feel her spine shiver and her heart jump to her throat as she saw the treasure chest suddenly growing well-toned legs, ready to kick her out of the maze for daring to try to collect something out of her.

Oh, and the Clubberskull was still there.

Now, Robin was not a (very) proud woman. If necessary, she would retreat from a battle and (try to) swallow her pride, because it was better to have a hurt ego than a hurt anything else. Unfortunately, the Mimicutie had locked her in a series of spinning kicks, throwing her against the corner where the Clubberskull was currently flailing his brute arms around.

The Clubberskull gave her an uppecut punch that sent her bouncing between the ceiling and the still burning floor, a hilarious sight for anyone watching from outside, but an incredibly painful experience for her. Robin tried using her Levin Sword on the giant beating heart that was the monster, but the Mimicutie jumped in the air and gave a swift kick to her stomach, launching her far away from the two of them.

For some godly miracle, the tactician survived, taking the opportunity that it would take a while for the Mimicutie to catch up to where she landed to run away as fast as she could and killing some minor Goombas in the way and collecting the small boosts they dropped. She jumped off the edge from one of the platforms she was in and took the fall, not really caring about the height or the impact. Her head was spinning from the beating and all she wanted was to rest for possibly her whole life.

Her body fell lifelessly to the ground with a loud thud and she stayed there for a few seconds, breathing slowly and steadily, forgetting that she was in the middle of a Smash Run round and the last thing she could waste was time. Robin got up, albeit not without effort due to her current injuries, and looked to her left. There were three platforms, one above each other, that led to another section of the maze. She definitely was not eager to go back to where those unholy abominations still were, so she decided to take that path and see if she could find some nice Koopas to kill.

Robin jumped the platforms and used Elwind to give her an extra boost and help her reach the edge. She reached a tunnel that had another platform climbing session at the end of it that would lead her to an area filled with vegetation and a more "green" look. As if her prayers had been answered, she ended up encountering a group of Waddled Dees at the end of the tunnel. She took the opportunity to use her Nosferatu tome on them and heal her injuries by sucking out their lives with dark magic.

For some reason, she ended up thinking about Rob. How was he doing? Did he find the Cluberskull and try taking it down? Or did he decide to leave it alone and go after the smaller enemies? Was he doing better than her? If she was to be honest with herself, she hoped he wasn't. She really didn't want to lose to him. She didn't even want to be there, this whole competition business Master Hand was forcing them to go through was absolutely ridiculous to her.

Why was it so hard for him to simply leave the decision to them? Robin was sure she and Rob could figure the solution out together. Or better yet, he could get the records of their previous fights and compare the results in order to see who was performing better and was more fit for the spot of official, if that was such a big issue.

She sighed as she was forced to throw her Nosferatu tome away after using it too much on the Pookas. She felt a little better, enough for her to run straight without having her knees tremble too much. It was time to tip the scales and get back to the game.

Or that was the plan.

Robin suddenly started to hear an eerie music in the distance and found herself forced to retreat when she saw a deadly Orne blocking her way upwards.

Today really wasn't her day.

* * *

><p>"So, how did it go?" Rob asked once the two were back to the entrance hall.<p>

Robin gave him the most deadpanned look she could muster up. From the looks of things, Rob would guess it could have gone better for her. He, on the other hand, felt it could have been a lot worse. Sure, he didn't get to kill any major enemies that gave the best boosters, but most of the challenge doors he would enter were not challenge doors at all and gave him a lot of free goodies, including gold and food to replenish his health.

Their attention were brought back to the gloved hand that floated towards them from gods know where, their dark eyes showing eager anticipation for the final results that were to be shown on the screen in front of them.

"Now, for the final results," Master Hand said.

The screen lit up, showing the pictures of both Robins and how much of each booster they had collected.

"O-Oh..."

Rob could feel his heart sink as he looked at Robin's disappointed face. Out of all the boosters, Robin had only won in the Special and Defense departments, while Rob won all the others by a landslide. The Arms part was especially insulting, with Robin scoring 232 point, while Rob scored 760.

"Congratulations, male Robin," Master Hand said. "You are today's winner."

There was something in the way Master Hand referred to him that made Rob want to laugh. To hear their boss acknowledge him as an individual Robin was so unreal that it was comical to him. He pressed his thin lips together, trying his best to keep silent the nervous laugh that wanted to escape, not even letting out a snort. The bitter look on Robin's face just made him feel even worse. He wanted to laugh, but he felt so sad and awkward over his victory.

What a trainwreck his emotional state had became. He wanted to get out.

Heh, "male Robin".

They left the Smash Run stadium without exchanging a word. Robin wished she could talk to Rob without sounding like a sore loser. She was feeling salty, yes, but there was no reason for her to lash out on him, he'd won that round fair and square.

"Well, now I remember why I don't like Smash Run that much," Rob said, breaking the silence between them once they got away from Master Hand.

"What are you talking about? You won," Robin frowned. "I should be the one complaining here."

"Yeah, well, I got lucky there for a while with the challenge doors," he confessed.

"Oh, so you mean to tell me that, while I was getting beaten to a bloody pulp by a Clubberskull, you kept getting rewarded for opening some doors."

"If you put it that way..."

"I can't believe you won by luck."

"Hey, it wasn't just luck!" he said, offended. "That helped, but most of the boosts I got by my own work."

"You just got lucky," she teased. "Your victory had nothing to do with your strategy skills."

"At least, I didn't throw myself at a Clubberskull, unprepared, thinking I had any chances of defeating it," Rob retorted. "At least I knew which enemies to attack because I know where my strength lies."

"It was a good plan!" Robin snarled. "There were no enemies, the floor was lava and I would keep spamming it with magic spells. It was the Mimicutie that screwed everything up!"

"A good tactician usually would have a backup plan for in case something like this happened," he said with a smug grin, ignoring the murderous glare he was receiving from her. "A true tactician wouldn't have fallen for such a simple mistake. I don't think you're fit for your job, Robin."

"Fuck you, Rob!"

Oh, crap...

Rob wanted to punch himself as he saw Robin storm off, clearly offended by what he just said.

"Robin, I'm sorry!" he exclaimed, chasing after her.

He cursed under his breath as she walked faster, her steps heavy and steady on the paved ground. "Robin, come on," Rob tried calling her once more. "Wait!"

Robin turned her head, before entering the hotel again. Rob let out an exasperated sigh and slowed down his pacing. It was clear Robin was beyond mad with what he had said, so maybe it would be better to go talk to her once she calmed down.

Or he could go and talk to her right now, because he would be damned if he didn't admit that seeing her that way made him feel like the worst piece of human garbage in the world.

Rob regained his pace and did his best to follow her. With effort and dedication, he actually managed to catch up to her in one of the elevators. Catch up being the nice term for throwing himself inside the elevator when the doors were almost closing, crashing immediately into the stupefied girl. The two would have lost their balance and fallen had it not for Robin supporting their weight with her back on the wall behind her.

"What do you think you're doing?" she hissed, still holding him tight.

"In my defense, this wouldn't have happened if you didn't run off like that," he said, blushing from embarrassment. "Still, I wanted to apologize."

Robin said nothing, instead, looking at the other passengers by her side, making Rob realize that they weren't alone in that small space. By their side stood a rather amused Lucario and two young female Villagers, one of them with pink hair and the other with a very odd hairstyle of three ponytails, who kept gossiping between them and giggling at the two tacticians.

Rob immediately got away from her and hastily fixed his hair and clothes, trying to look semi-presentable to the judging looks from the other Smashers.

"Nice sprint you did there," the pink haired Villager said, jokingly and without any hint of malice.

"I've been training," Rob said, trying to joke along, but still very embarrassed. "You think I have a chance now in the tournament?"

"I think you're ready," the girl giggled.

Robin just crossed her arms and rolled her eyes, not really noticing that Lucario kept looking at her and Rob with curiosity. The Pokemon had always been a mystery to the Smashers, so nobody ever bothered to ask him what was in his mind.

The two Robins left the elevator in a hurry once it reached their floor, being followed by Lucario, who also had his room in the fourth floor. The two stood there awkwardly, watching the Pokemon calmly pass by them, his amber eyes fixated on the two tacticians for a while before he walked away. Lucario sure was a weird one.

"You ever got what was Lucario's deal?" Rob asked casually.

"Can you blame him for looking funny at us, when you threw yourself at me like that?" she asked, still a little irritated.

"If you just waited and talked to me like a mature person, this wouldn't have happened."

"Oh, gee, sorry for being upset about you insulting me."

"Your sarcasm is dully noted," he said deadpanned, before rubbing the back of his neck. "Well... Sorry for that."

"For throwing yourself at me?"

"No, for saying that you're not a good tactician and that you're not fit for your job. I know this really means a lot to you. And, well, I would be this offended too if someone said that to me, so..."

There was a five second silence between them, before Robin cracked up a very light, almost unnoticeable smile. Rob definitely would have missed it if he wasn't paying attention to her lips.

Wait, what?

"Fine," she said, giving him a very light punch to the shoulder. "I know you didn't do it on purpose."

"Of course not."

Now it was Rob's turn to smile. And he had no idea why, he had no idea what made him want to, but he extended his hand to her face, so similar to his, his thumb gently stroking her cheek as his mind became numb from the moment. His heart skipped a beat once he noticed that, instead of pulling herself away, Robin just closed her eyes and tilted her head slightly to where his hand was, seeming to melt away by his touch.

"Rob..." she sighed. "What are you doing?"

"I..."

And then his mind snapped back to reality.

What was he doing?

He immediately pulled his hand away, causing Robin to open her eyes and look awkwardly at the floor. That was not supposed to happen at all. Where was his self-control when he needed it most? It couldn't just somersault away and come back when he had already screwed everything up, that was ridiculous. And to think he was almost bringing her face next to his.

"Well then..."

"Yeah."

"I don't know what's gotten to me."

"It's okay."

"So..."

"Yeah..."

"I'll see you around then?"

"Uh, sure," Robin forced a smile. "See you."

They had no idea where or what they were going to do, but anything that served as an excuse to avoid each other for a while was valid.

* * *

><p><strong>That part about Rob winning against Captain Falcon with a 0.1 second difference in the final race was actually something that happened to me. I swear almost threw my 3DS out of the window when I saw Robin on the victory screen and the results showing the time, it was a Christmas miracle. And it's kind of ironic how I made the Robins hate Smash Run this much because Robin is the character I use the most when playing this mode. Smash Run is great and almost compensates the lack of a story mode (almost).<strong>

**Smash Tour, on the other hand, can go fuck itself.**

**So here's the question that won't shut up: Smash Run or Smash Tour? (or "None, Sakurai give us back a story mode"?)**


	7. Chapter 7

**I'm sorry for taking longer to update. I've had some emotional problems these days and couldn't write this chapter to save my life for most of the week.**

* * *

><p>By the time she saw Robin bring her hand to her left cheek and then stare at nothing in particular for maybe the fourth time in only twenty minutes, Whitney knew she had to be a little intrusive. "Are you feeling well, Robin?" the yoga trainer asked in concern.<p>

"Hm?"

Robin wondered if she should be sincere with the trainer, after all, being sincere with Whitney would be the least she could do to thank her for taking her out for a walk when she found Robin in the patio, seated on the bench, distracted because of distress. Robin at first wanted to say that she was fine, that Whitney didn't need to worry about her. One look at her flushed cheeks gave away all the lies she wanted to tell, so Robin decided to accept her invitation and go with her to the nearest coffee shop.

Whitney was a nice person, really. Robin should start spending more time with her more often. Intentionally, that is. Maybe then she would feel more at ease in telling her her problems. It would be nice to have someone to rely her problems on that wasn't Shulk. Poor guy had already slept through her ramblings last time, maybe it was time she gave him some space.

The price of the coffee the shop sold, however, was not that nice.

"Must all food here be this overpriced?" Robin commented, examining a brownie displayed on the shelf by their side while the two waited in line.

"You didn't answer my question."

"I'm okay," she lied. "It's nothing to worry about."

"If you say so," Whitney was not convinced at all.

They reached the cashier, paid for their drinks, their wallets getting stabbed by the prices in the process, and found a nice spot on the one of the sofas next to the front window. For a while, both women just drank their coffee in silence, neither knowing what to say to each other. Well, Whitney didn't know what to say. Robin had her mind so out there that she forgot for a moment that she was supposed to help her on engaging in a conversation.

Whitney couldn't understand what was going on. She had such a nice time with Robin before, now it seemed like the girl in front of her was a completely different person. Oh, right, last time! She could use something they talked about last time to bring her down to the ground.

"So, I remember you mentioning you had a competition with your..." Whitney paused, digging through her memory Robin's long explanation about her and Rob's relationship. "Male counterpart? Anyway, how was the fight against him? You said it would start today, right?"

Robin cringed a little at the "male counterpart" bit, but kept her bitter distaste to herself. "Yeah, it was today," she took a sip. "Had to go through Smash Run, had my ass kicked by a Clubberskull, a Mimicutie and a flock of Ghastlies and Magikoopas," she took another sip, this time more audible, her fingers slightly grasping the cup tighter. "It was awful."

"I can see that," the trainer gave an awkward smile. "But, hey, it's been only the first day. You haven't won on Smash Run, so what? What really matters is how well you perform in the battlefield, right?"

"I suppose."

"Is that what's bothering you so much?"

No, what bothered her wasn't that, not even by a long shot. It was that little gesture of Rob's back in the hotel that kept plaguing her mind for the past couple of hours. Now, Robin could take that as some sort of weird teasing from his part. She was already pretty used to him making unnecessary commentaries just to get a reaction from her, but he was never... Physical. Robin could feel her stomach turn with nervousness as the mere memory of his oddly gentle touch came back to her mind.

Gods, she was pathetic. What was she, a teenager? And to think she almost leaned forward back then.

"Robin, you're red," Whitney said nonchalantly.

"It's the coffee."

"You don't need to lie, you know? I can take a 'I don't want to talk about this' just fine."

"Okay, then, I don't want to talk about this."

"Hey, I asked you to be sincere, but not this much!"

Robin made sure to change the subject as quickly as possible, for her own sake. As much as Whitney didn't want to show, Robin could see that she was itching in her seat to know what was going on with her. For someone who appeared that calm and collected, Whitney sure was a curious person, almost in a phony way.

Maybe a little bit too much. Robin could swear that the trainer was just an inch away from grabbing her shoulders and trying to make her spill out what her problem was. She probably already had an idea of what was going on, but just wanted confirmation. Robin tried to talk about other things, but Whitney always got back to asking why she was acting so odd.

Okay, she wanted Shulk back. Whitney was nice, but her passive-aggressive demands for an explanation were starting to overwhelm her and she didn't feel like opening up to her at all. Robin would make sure to go out next time with Whitney when she was completely okay emotionally.

* * *

><p>Unlike Robin, Rob decided to spend some time with more familiar people to him. And by people, that meant only Lucina. In any other situation, he would make a remark to himself to try to make more friends, but he was in too much deep emotional turmoil to care. He didn't want to pour out his feelings to her or anything, he just wanted to get his mind distracted. The silly game he was playing on his phone while he waited could do so much before he got bored and started to think about Robin again.<p>

"Oh, Robin, there you are," the tactician heard the familiar voice behind him. He got up from the sofa and turned around to find Lucina and Shulk standing there, their hair messy and faces covered in sweat from the intense training. Seeing Lucina in that state was already a normal sight to him, but he didn't expect to see Shulk there too.

Since when Shulk started hanging out with Lucina? Not that Rob would complain, he also liked Shulk, despite not being nearly as close to him as Robin was. In fact, both she and Shulk were so close, that anyone could easily assume that the two were dating.

And that mere thought made him dislike Shulk a little more. And feel a little more stupid because of a silly assumption.

"So, how was your fight today?" Shulk asked. "I'm sorry I wasn't there to watch. I was helping Lucina with training."

"It was intense, that's all I can say..."

"So, who won?" Lucina asked eagerly.

Rob sighed internally. "I did," he said, surprisingly nonchalant. "It wasn't easy, and I really thought that I was going to lose, but for some miracle I won."

"Congratulations!" Lucina said, happily clapping her hands. "I knew you could do it!"

"I... uh... Thank you, Lucy," Rob scratched the back of his head.

"Oh, that's too bad for Robin," Shulk said, bringing Rob's attention to him. "Do you know where she is?"

"Why?" he hissed.

Any other person would realize the certain tension in that simple question from Rob, however Shulk wasn't one to read atmospheres that well. When it came to reading other people's emotions, the young seer was as clueless as one could get.

"Because I think she might want to have someone to cheer her up."

"Well, I don't know. After the battle we went on separate ways. She didn't tell me where she was going," the tactician said. It was mostly true, he really didn't know where she was. That small bit about him cupping her cheek on his hand like a lovestruck idiot was an unnecessary detail unworthy of mention.

He wanted to tell him that Robin wanted to be left alone, but his dick move quota was already filled for pretty much the rest of the week thanks to what he said a few moments ago, so he just kept his mouth shut.

"I see," he said, putting a hand on his chin. "I'm going to search for her, then. Later, you two."

Shulk waved his goodbyes and left the other two Smashers, still oblivious to Rob's discomfort. He could hear the tactician's confused exclamation to something Lucina had said and would take a shot in the dark and assume she had already told him about her plan on changing her fighting style. To that, he wished his friend good luck. He would probably need it, what with Lucina now wanting to find a spear and a lance to incorporate them in her move set.

He took out the cell phone he had in his cargo shorts' pocket (a wonderful invention, in his humble opinion) and searched for his best friend's number.

"Robin?"

"_Shulk? Hey_," the voice on the other end of the call said. "_How are you?_"

"Fine, I guess," he shrugged his shoulders. "What about you? How did it go with today's battle?"

"_Could have been a lot better,_" she grumbled. "_I lost._"

"Yeah, Rob told me everything. Are you okay?"

"_Nothing I won't get over with,_" she said hesitantly. "_So, uh, you want me to come over there?_"

"I never said anything about you coming to see me, but if you want to..."

"_Oh, okay, I'll see you then,_" she pressed on. "_You'll wait in the lobby? Okay, I'll be there in ten minutes. See you!_"

Shulk heard his friend end the call, confused for a while, before realizing that Robin probably was trying to escape from someone. She did sound hesitant, almost measuring her own words, so that would not be a bad guess.

He would wait, only because he was pretty worried for Robin. Also because she was lucky that he was searching for her to begin with. Shulk went back to the lobby, where Rob and Lucina were a few moments before, and sat in one of the various empty velvet sofas. The Homs kept messing with his phone, a light smile on his lips. He liked the technology from this world, even if he had a lot of equivalents back in Bionis.

Seriously, though, his journey would have been so much easier if he had one of these cell phones. All the favors he did to strangers could have taken just half the time. And to keep in touch with his friends. That would have been great! He could keep in touch with his friends, like Reyn, Melia or Sharla.

Or Fiora.

"Fiora..."

He was sure Fiora would have liked one of those. Shulk was starting to feel his heart tighten as more memories of his childhood friend came to his mind. It had been a long time since he's had feelings towards her that went beyond friendship, that was true. And who could blame him? Fiora was kind, caring, spirited and very, very beautiful. He would spend hours talking to her and just goofing around in the calm afternoons of Colony 6, and would give anything to have that chance to do it again once more.

Except those wonderful memories he had of her weren't his. He never met Fiora once and never would, those were all feelings the original Shulk felt. Yet, he still he latched onto them with his dear life. It was almost masochistic, in a way.

Well... Shulk got sad pretty fast. That was a new record for him.

"Shulk?" someone asked.

He looked up from his device and found Robin staring at him, hands clasped together over her tights and slightly bending over. Her sheer dedication to arrive earlier than predicted sure said something about how much time she wanted to spend with whoever was with her.

"I'm so sorry for doing this to you," she apologized, sheepshily. "It's just that Whitney wouldn't stop talking and..."

"It's okay, I called you exactly because I wanted to see if you are doing well," Shulk said, waving his hand as if that was nothing.

"Oh, Shulk, I just lost one lousy fight. I still have four more to go," she said. "Maybe even three, if I win the next three days in a row."

"I'm not talking about the fights, I want to know about you and Rob."

"R-Right..."

"You didn't lose because..."

"Gods, no, my crush on him haven't reached this state... I think."

"You think?" the blonde asked in disbelief.

"It was a round of Smash Run without a final showdown, okay? I didn't get to face him directly."

So the vision he had early that morning didn't happen yet. Maybe he should warn her about what he saw. That wouldn't be favoritism, after all, Rob already had one victory already and Robin was at a disadvantage. Maybe...

"Shulk, you look kind of worried," Robin commented. "Maybe I should be the one asking if you are okay?"

"I'm fine, it's nothing worth discussing, trust me."

Robin shook her head and sighed. Shulk almost never said anything about what he was feeling, always prefering to keep things to himself. Robin couldn't help but worry about him. Shulk was a wonderful listener and an even more amazing friend, but when it came to him opening up to her, he was one of the most stubborn people Robin has ever met and would try to shift the conversation to her whenever possible. And that was saying something, because she already had to deal with a good bunch of stubborn people in her past life.

It almost felt like he didn't trust her.

"Whatever you say then," she grumbled.

"Seriously, I'm fine," he put a hand on her shoulder. "And... About you and Rob, I promise I'll go watch your next fight and root for you."

"Root for me?" she giggled. "Don't you think Rob will feel offended by you preferring me?"

"I'm not talking about the fights, Robin."

* * *

><p>"Seriously, Lucina? A lance and a spear?"<p>

"Why?" the blue haired swordswoman. "Do you think it would be too convoluted for me to use three kinds of weapons?"

"Honestly, yes."

"Oh, alright," Lucina said, crossing the blue stick figure on the paper in front of her that yield the closest thing to a lance as it could get with a sharpie. "Then I'm going to use just with the spear."

"Luci, just stick with Falchion," Rob pleaded. "What good will it do to you if you use a spear?"

"I would have a projectile. Those are always good."

"Okay, that makes some sense. But why do you want to change your fighting style?"

"So people wouldn't complain about me being a copycat of the Hero King."

It was three in the afternoon, Rob was tired from having to face off against a bunch of Chandelures and Metroids, he just came back from apologizing for accidentally being a huge dick to his newly found crush, and now Lucina developed a sudden fear over what people would think of her as a Smasher.

So there they were, seated on one of the empty tables of the outside bar, scribbling stick figures on paper in order to come up with good move plans for Lucina. The cold and ugly weather shooed away anyone remotely interested in spending a good time with their friends there, so it came to no surprise that only Rob and Lucina were there in the bar. Them and the former Smasher and current barman, Solid Snake, how stayed behind the balcony, meticulously cleaning it from dust that wasn't there.

"Okay, let's pretend that you being similar to Marth is a problem," he ignored Lucina's glare. "How do you plan on getting a spear, if all of our weapons are provided to us by Master Hand? The only way would be possible if you asked him for one, but I don't suppose he would be too fond of this idea."

"I could try talking to him," she put a hand on her chin.

Her line of thought was interrupted by a loud cough coming from the balcony. The two swordsmen turned their heads and saw Snake looking at them with a rather amused expression. "Listen, kid," he said, dropping the worn out piece of cloth. "I'm not usually one to butt in conversations and whatnot, but this thing you're planning won't work if you talk directly to Master Hand."

"Well, thanks for being so helpful," Rob snarled.

"Keep your smart ass comments to yourself and wait until I finish explaining," the ex-soldier said. "Master Hand won't provide you any new weapon. But you can always try getting one somewhere else. Buy one in a specialized store or even forge one, if you're capable of."

"What if he doesn't approve of me using a different weapon?" Lucina asked, now feeling unsure. "If he would refuse helping me with getting a new weapon, then certainly..."

"Give him a demonstration of what else you can do and he might consider letting you implement it in your move set," Snake simply said. "Think of it as a presentation of prototype of sorts."

"But Peach said that Master Hand doesn't listen to anyone," Rob said.

"She's kind of right, he doesn't. Master Hand isn't interested in just listening to ideas. He wanna see them in action before making a decision."

"Not much of a risk taker, uh?"

"The guy created us and this whole world, give him a break."

Rob looked at Lucina with uncertainty, waiting for her final world on the subject. He still thought that trying to change the way she fought was risky and the chances of that backfiring on her were huge. But in the end the decision was hers. He already said what he thought about it, so he could only hope she would take his words to heart.

"Sir Snake, do you happen to know if there is a weapon store nearby?" Lucina asked with a gleam in her eyes.

Gods be damned, Lucina.

"Heh, 'Sir Snake' does have a nice ring to it," he smirked. "I know one, but I'm not sure they sell what you're looking for. The weapons there are more for home decoration than anything, but who knows? You might find something there."

"Let's see now who is the one who isn't trying enough," Lucina smiled brightly to herself.

"Gimme a paper and a pen," he said, reaching his hand to her. "I'll give ya the address."

* * *

><p><strong>Not my favorite chapter, but I hope I got some small development for Shulk. I can imagine Snake having another job after he retired from being a Smasher, but I'm not sure if he would be able to go back to his old ways (that he never had to begin with).<strong>

**Oh, and answering anon's question on chapter 5, about what I thought would make a good move set for Daisy. I don't have one, but I think they could work a lot with the Mario games spinoffs. She could be the living embodiment of Mario spinoffs! She could roll a dice and whatever number it showed it would be a different attack, making a call back to Mario Party. She could do like Wario and Bowser Jr. and ride a kart as her side b. And, of course, her taunts would be nothing but "Hi, I'm Daisy!", because we need an annoying taunt to match Brawl Sonic's.**

**Oh, and about Link not having a voice... Yeah, last time Nintendo gave him the art of speech, we got a really annoying 80's catchphrase and lots of Youtube poop material. We learn from the mistakes of the past to not repeat them in the present.**


	8. Chapter 8

**I tried to do something different with the flow of this chapter, so if you like it or not, just let me know. I know I have said this before, but maybe my updates will get a little slower from now on, sorry.**

* * *

><p>"I hope you are well and ready for your second battle today," Master Hand announced to the mages bellow him.<p>

Rob and Robin grumbled in unison, eyes almost closed and mouths slightly agape from tiredeness. Of all days they were forced to fight against each other early int he morning, it had to be this one? They were already restless and dizzy as they were, the last thing they wanted was to have Master Hand's booming voice resonating through their eardrums at 9 am. His voice was so powerful that made Rob wonder how the massive glass window that covered the entire wall behind his desk didn't shatter with it. Either it was a very solid and thick glass, or Rob's hearing sensitivity due to exhaustion was making him hear worse.

It could very well be both. The point is, Rob didn't want to be there. Master Hand could get that competition that he was forcing upon them and shove it up his... Something. Whatever his ass was supposed to be. Even it there wasn't any and his wrist was the closests thing to a rear their master would get, Rob would still imagine he had one. It suited the face he imagined for him. He hated he sound of his voice this early in the morning, he hated being in his squeaky clean, minimalist aesthetic bullshit of an office, he hated that the weather was now starting to clean up, so there were no clouds to cover the rays of morning sunshine that came through the windows and burned what little was uncovered of his retinas.

But, above all, he felt slightly upset for feeling so awkward when near his female counterpart after what happened last night between them. He didn't like it. He hated being so confused by everything that was happening between them.

That was a lot of hate for one morning, he couldn't cause even more headaches than he already had at the moment. Rob took a deep and silent breath to calm himself down. He subtly glanced over Robin, who still had her snooze mode face on. What was she thinking about? Was she even thinking at all or was her brain still trying to get to work? By the way she tried disguising anothe yawn, a third in the lastest twenty minutes, he would guess it was the latter.

"I see you haven't gotten much rest last night," Master Hand commented.

"I'm... Sorry," she rubbed her eyes. "I'll get better once we get to today's battle."

"Uh, yeah," Rob scratched his head. "Me too."

There was a short silence between them. "Very well," their boss said, gesturing for them to follow him outside the office. "We shall go to Arena Ferox today. If you please follow me."

"Arena Ferox, uh?" Robin whispered, remembering what Shulk had told her yesterday.

* * *

><p><em>"...And that's pretty much it," Shulk finished explaining his vision to the tactician.<em>

_"Spamming me with magic," Robin chuckled. "That's really something he would do. Rob was always more fond of using tomes than I."_

_"Tell me about it..."_

_"I'll see what I can do. Was there anything else in your vision?"_

_"I don't know... I mean, his spells seemed stronger, somehow, so I'd really watch out for them."_

_"Maybe he got some stats boosts," she put a hand on her chin. "Anyway, I'll keep in mind what you just said. Rob will probably camp in some part of the arena and keep throwing spells at me. I'll just make sure to dodge them in time and use the Bronze and Levin swords on him."_

* * *

><p>As they went over to the door, Master Hand saw Lucina and Shulk stationed just outside his office's door with their backs resting on the wall and chatting quietly among themselves.<p>

"I pressume you two are here to watch Robin's battle?" the hand asked, a little surprised with their presence there.

"Oh, Master Hand, good morning," Lucina greeted politely, quickly straitghening herself up. "We actually were just waiting to ask you if it was alright to accompany them."

"It is quite alright, as long as you don't have any battles scheduled for now," the hand shrugged it off.

"Only in the afternoon," Shulk said, being accompanied by a nod of head from Lucina.

Shulk gave a concerned look at Robin, who didn't noticed his gaze and just yawned. Whatever happened to her it didn't look like it would do favors in today's battle. She didn't even bother neatly braiding her hair and just sported a lazy low ponytail. Though, really, the most prevalent thing in her face were the two huge eyebags under her eyes. Rob also didn't look any better.

Since everyone was set, Master Hand snapped his fingers and teleported the fours Smashers to the entrance of the Arena Ferox stadium. The act was sudden and it didn't take them a second to go from the hotel to the stadium, which, while in theory was a lot more practical than going by cab or bus, the simple fact of having to suddenly materialize in a completely different place was a traumatatizing experience to someone's body, so it came to no surprise to Master Hand that the Smashers started to feel slightly nauseated once they arrived.

Except for Shulk, who had eaten just about ten minutes ago and looked incredibly sick.

"Please refrain from vomiting here," Master Hand motioned for them to follow him.

Rob and Robin nodded and followed the floating white hand, while Shulk just walked further away and threw up near the closest post he could find. Lucina quickly rushed by his side and massaged his back in sympathy, motioning her hand for the Robins, who had turned around to see what the fuss was about, to continue walking. "We'll be there in a minute," she said.

"They'll be fine, let's go," Rob whispered to his roomate.

"Okay," she subtly inched away from him and walked ahead.

Rob let out a sigh and followed her.

* * *

><p><em>Rob watched Lucina leave the elevator as they reached the floor her room was, Falchion strapped to her hip, still tired from the match 2-stock match she had against Diddy Kong and Bowser Jr at the Onett she still didn't have a spear, the swordswoman thought it was a great opportunity to test out her new moves she came up with for her, only to realize midway in the fight that getting used to her new style would take a lot more energy that she thought it would. It didn't help that Diddy Kong was a monster in the battlefiled and wouldn't stop jumping from place to another, landing quickly and strong kicks and punches mid-air. Bowser Jr was a little easier to deal with, but fighting both young Smashers did take a tool on her.<em>

_The tactician could only watch her leave, dragging her tired feet on the red velvet carpet, with sympathy and hope she would give up on the idea of changing her move set, before she realizes how poorly that idea was being executed in the hard way. He got off from the elevator once he arrived on the next floor, having only to be careful to not step on any of the little Pikmin that occupied about 2/3 of the elevator. He waited for Olimar and Alph to lead them away from him and walked calmly to the left, his tiredness slowly hitting him as he got closer and closer to his room._

_He opened the door and noticed the lights were already turned on, meaning Robin had already arrived before him._

_"Robin? Hey, I'm back."_

_Just as he thought, there she was, laying on her bed, book in hands and an open bag of chips by her side. She was already wearing her usual white tank top and purple shorts to sleep and had her hair down and unkept. She seemed completely immersed in her book, enough for her to only mutter a 'hey' without raising her head._

_"You are here early," Rob commented as he threw his boots on the carpeted floor._

_"Heh, I just wanted to sleep early this time," she turned a page. "You know, since our battle tomorrow is so early in the morning."_

_"Don't even remind me," Rob grumbled, throwing his heavy coat on a chair and belly flopping on his bed. "So, is this book any good?"_

_"it could be a lot better," she laughed, turning her head to him. "It's a romance that Peach suggested me the other day. Too much sugary for my taste, but it's harmless. Honestly, I think it's something Sumia would like to read."_

* * *

><p>They followed Master Hand to inside the stadium, passing by the Miis working on cleaning the place for another day of activites and that only stopped what they were doing to pay their respects to the big hand. Rob saw Master Hand choosing a random female Mii and asking her to go outside and clean after Shulk's puke. He could see her disguising her annoyance and leave after giving a nod of her head and with cleaning utensils in hand. Not the best way to start the day, even if cleaning was her job. Rob couldn't help but feel sympathy for her.<p>

They reached a chromatic door that was at the end of the extensive dim-litted, grey corridor. Behind that door was the room that had the transporter platforms responsible for transporting the Smashers to their designated stages. Each stadium had about ten stages, so the transporters were a wonderful invention that avoided convuluted walkings from stage from stage.

Master Hand motioned for them to stop on their tracks. "Now, I only need one of you to follow me," he announced, raising the tacticians' eyebrows. "I shall call the other one briefly."

"Hm, Rob, you can go first, if you want," Robin said, pointing to the door.

"Fine."

Rob followed Master Hand and shut the door. The room was truly something different from the rest of the stadium, being incredibly well-lit with flourescent lamps and looking something that came out from a modern sci-fi movie. Rob couldn't understand what half of those machines and screens were for, but he knew enough to set the neon platforms on the floor to take him to where he wanted, so that was already something. However, there was a new element there that took him by surprise.

"Stats boosts?"

Right in front of him were displayed the stats boosts that he would encounter in Smash Run. Speed, Jump, Attack, Special, Arms and Defense, all six were there. He already had an idea of where that was going, but he would let Master hand explain it to him.

"In today's fight, you will chose one stat you would like to buff," Master Hand explained. "However, for one strength you gain, you must also chose a weakness. You are a tactician, so I expect you to chose wisely what would suit you better."

Right, one strength and one weakness. Rob analised the stats carefully, wondering what would be best for him. He was by far one of the (if not THE) slowest fighters in Smash Bros, so boosting up his speed would be a nice choice. But did he really want it? Rob was never a big fan of running around the stages, prefering to take strategic spots using his magic tomes on his enemies instead. If he upped his special attacks he would cause quite the damage, or if he made his defense better, he might just become a mighty glacier.

But then he had to choose a weakeness.

Since he wasn't a big fan of moving around, he could weaken his speed, or his arms, since he wasn't a big fan of grabing his opponents and throwing them around like ragdolls.

What to do...

* * *

><p><em>It was only after some good ten minutes of not exchanging a word with each other that Robin decided to break the silence.<em>

_"Rob..." Robin said in a rather quiet voice, closing the book she held and setting it aside as she sat up with crossed legs. "I'm still curious about something. What was up with that back then, after you apologized to me?"_

_"You mean..."_

_"Yeah," she hugged her stomach. "Uh, that."_

_"To be honest, I have no idea," he said, also sitting up._

_"What? Come on, there must have been a reason," she eyed him suspiciously._

_"I swear that there wasn't any!" he lied between teeth. Just drop the subject already, Robin. He didn't want to discuss that any longer._

_"If you say so..." Robin turned her head away, her fingertips touching her cheek. "But... It felt nice," she whispered with a sheepish smile. "It's not like you to act nice like this, especially around me."_

_"What are you talking about? I am gentle!"_

_"Not as much as when you're around Lucina," there was a hint of bitterness in her voice._

_"Around... Lucina," Rob mumbled, completly dumbfounded. "Wait, are you jealous of her?!"_

_"Why would I be jealous?" she tightened the grip on her stomach. "You and her can do what you want with your life, I don't care."_

_"Except there's nothing happening between us. I love Lucina like a sister," he explained, now sitting at the edge of her bed. "If anything, I should be the one wondering what is the deal between you and Shulk."_

_"Shulk?!" now it was Robin's turn to be surprised. "Rob, we're just close friends!"_

_"How close?"_

_"Platonic type of close, stop being ridiculous!" she threw her pillow at him, who caught it in midair and rested it on his lap. "And why would you care, anyway?"_

_"You tell me! You're the one who was getting worked up over implying I was having an affair with Lucina," he leaned closer._

_There was a crushing silence between the two tacticians, brown eyes meticulously scanning each other in search for a single gimpse of a lie. Yet, they could find none. At that point, the tension between them should have at least started to dissipate a little. After all, none of them were actually having an affair with their friends, so that should have calmed their spirits down._

_Instead, they just continued to nervously stare at each other. So Rob, genius tactician and mastermind that he was, decided to do the most sensible and logical thing someone in that situation could do._

* * *

><p>Robin took a deep breath as she spawned at the Arena Ferox stage, the announcer's voice echoing through the vast place. That was going to be one awkward fight, she could feel it. At least it was a three-minute free-for-all, so no matter how much they dragged it, she knew it would be over after long and tortuous three minutes.<p>

**3... 2... 1... GO!**

Robin dashed towards her opponent, taking advantage of the time he took to charge up his thunder tome. She sidestepped just in time to avoid an Elthunder spell, the ball of electricity flying centimeters away from her nose, and took the chance to slash him with her Bronze sword.

It was rather curious how, despite their similarities, both Robins had different ways of fighting. They had the same attacks and special moves, but that was about it. Robin was a lot more aggressive, having a preference over taking more risks and using her Bronze and Levin swords more often and only using her tomes when she was in a dire situation and was forced stay away from her opponent when her damage percent was already high enough to make her be sent flying with ease. Rob, on the other hand, only ever use the Levin sword when he had overused his magic and had to wait fo them to recharge.

He rolled out of the way before Robin could slash him once more. From the way she moved, it was safe to bet that she prefered to boost her speed. "Arcfire!" he shouted, throwing a big ball of fire in an arc motion at Robin in order to stop her. Unfortunately, she activated her shield. Fortunately, he took that as an opportunity to grab her by the collar and force her to her knee, since shields could not protect the fighter from being grabbed.

Luckily for her, Robin managed to break free before any real damage could be done. Rob kept spamming Arcfires, trying to force her to retreat to the border of the arena.

"Ah, there he is!" Shulk exclaimed from one of the bleachers. "It's the vision I had."

"Vision?" Master Hand, who was currently floating by his and Lucina's side, asked. "Did you foresee this outcome, Shulk?"

"I-It was just this part," it was technically a half-truth. "I didn't tell them anything, though."

"Right..."

"You can do it, Robin!" Lucina cheered.

"I thought you were cheering for Rob?" Shulk asked.

"But I am."

Robin jumped over her opponent, using Elwind to carry her up and hit him from above and stopping him from trying to burn her alive.

It was time to tip the scales in her favor.

* * *

><p><em>Rob leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers, bringing himself close enough to her that their knees touched. And for a moment there, everything seemed right. For those short five seconds, he was in pure bliss, the rest of the world didn't matter int he slightest.<em>

_However, as soon as Robin pulled herself away, her eyes staring at him wide open in shock, the sudden realization of what just happened hit him like a bullet. What had he done? Why did he kiss her like that without a second thought? Chrom would better appear out of thin air and fire him from his position of tactician, because for someone who was required to use the most logical of thoughts, Rob was doing a piss poor job at keeping his reason intact._

_He mumbled a half-hearted apology and hastily got up from her bed, without any courage to look her in the face. That shower sounded really inviting all of a sudden. It sure did..._

_Rob felt a firm grasp on his wrist, forcing him to a halt. Was she going to slap him? He wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. To his surprise, however she made him turn around and crashed her lips on his once more, shakily, yet gently, caressing his soft white hair in the process. The kiss in itself was messy, kind of sloppy and far from perfect, but Robin would be lying if she said that wasn't one of the most wonderful sensations she ever felt. Her heart started beating even faster once she realized that, not only Rob didn't break them up, but he actually pulled her into a tight embrace, returning the kiss with the same passion._

_They continued liked that for quite some time, until suddenly Robin found herself pinned against a wall by her roommate. _

_"Rob," she let out a breathy moan, receiving another kiss from him. "M-Maybe..."_

_"Hm?"_

_"We should stop."_

_As if waking up from a trance, he let go of Robin, still trying to catch his breath. She was right, maybe they should stop._

_That didn't mean he wanted to. Honestly, with the sight of her there backec against a wall, ruffled hair, mouth agape from panting and messy tank top that exposed enough cleavage (and man, it sure was something), it was all enough for him to want to throw her in his bed and go even further from where they stopped._

_Basically, what he needed was a huge dump of freezing water on his head._

_"Uh, yeah, I'll just... Go take a shower, or something," he mumbled, pointing with his thumb at the door behind him._

_Robin nervously bit her lower lip and walked away from him and sat on her bed again, not really paying attention to anything in particular. Rob gave one last look at her and walked towards the door to the bathroom. He was about to grab the doorknob, but his hand froze on the spot._

_What was he thinking? It was Robin who he was lusting over. Robin, the girl that occupied his role in some sort of alternate universe and could easily pass of as his twin. In fact, for a lot of people there who were not that close to them, the two were actually considered twins to them. But of course they were not twins, that was preposterous. They were just different versions of the same person. That wasn't weird at all. _

_No, that was pretty fucking weird. That was what he kept telling himself, anyway. Yet, for some reason, he didn't feel as weird as he wanted to feel._

_"Hey, Robin."_

_"Yes?"_

_Robin turned her attention towards him, still visibly nervous, and saw Rob slowly walking up to her, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck and eyes glued on the floor._

_"Can I ask you something?"_

_"..."_

_"D-Did that feel good?"_

_She turned her head to the other side._

_"It's just that... I thought..."_

_"..."_

_"Do you want to make out again?"_

_"..." _

_Rob winced from the lack of response. Okay, maybe he really should get going and leave her alone._

_"... Yeah."_

_And that was enough of an answer to him. Rob immediately rushed to his counterpart's side and threw himself in her arms._

* * *

><p>"HIYA!"<p>

Robin slashed her Levin sword in the air, making contact with Rob's stomach as he tried to recover to the stage using Elwind. Due to the high damage he had already suffered, there was no way he could survive after one of their strongest attack and the male tactician was sent flying away.

"Alright, good," Robin whispered as she landed on the stage.

She ran to the opposite side of Arena Ferox, praying silently for the platforms that would appear every now and then to rise from the ground. She already had one KO pointed guaranteed, and with only thirty seconds to go, all she had to do was avoid Rob and keep throwing magic spells at him to keep him away.

Robin looked up and saw the respawn platform appearing above her. She stepped back as Rob jumped out from it and started charging his tome again. Robin didn't want to risk getting hit, so she just stood where she was, bracing herself for the time she would activate her shield. Of course, he didn't release Thoron right away, prefering to keep it until the moment was right. He ran towards her, Bronze sword ready, when the stage started to be enveloped by a purple mist, catching both by surprise. Platforms suddenly began to rise, just as Robin wanted to.

Rob cursed under his breath. Really? Was now the time for them to appear? The tactician jumped out from the one he suddenly found himself in. He saw Robin running beneath one of the slowest platforms and decided to follow her. With only twenty seconds to go, he had nothing else to lose. However, as soon as he landed on the stage, he found that Robin was closer than he'd expect and was caught by a surprise attack by her Nosferatu tome.

Nothing made him wish he could run away faster than that moment.

From the bleachers, Lucina bit her nails as the spectacle unfold bellow them. It didn't help that Shulk was right by her side, cheering for the other Robin. What was he doing? Robin usually was a lot more quick-thinking and cunning than that. Worse, it was clear that the other Robin was also not in her best conditions, because half of the attacks she did during that entire fight missed really badly.

So it really came down to who was doing less worse in that situation, which was the other Robin in this case, and Lucina just couldn't wrap her head around to why Robin was doing so terribly in that fight.

"ROBIN, YOU STILL HAVE YOUR THORON CHARGED," she screamed, making Shulk jump on his seat. "IF YOU CAN'T GET CLOSE TO HER, USE IT!"

"Lucina, I don't think he will listen to you here," Shulk tried to calm her down.

"But don't you see?" she pointed at the two tacticians. "He could easily kill her now and make them go to a Sudden Death."

"What good would it do him if he went to a draw out, when his opponent is more agile than him?"

"It's still better than loosing like this," she crossed her arms, waiting for the announcer to announce the end of the match. "Something isn't right with him, I can see it."

Shulk just kept watching, listening to Lucina's words carefully. She was right, something was wrong with them. If it was because of he was thinking or not, he couldn't know, but he just knew Robin would be more than eager to tell him.

* * *

><p><strong>Can you guys tell how much will it took me to not write "but he just had the feeling" right there at the end? Ha ha, fuck that meme and fuck me for lovinghating it. Can you also tell that fighting scenes are not my forté? Because they aren't.**

**I'm going to answer Ethereal780's question here, because I think it is of interest to some people: I'm not going to get into the customization moves at all. Yes, they are a thing, but they are not the default and not allowed in For Glory mode. This is also the reason why Miis are there, but they are not official Smashers.**

**I'm sorry for the lack of anyone who isn't Robin in this chapter, but I needed to reserve this chapter to only them. I'll try to show more Smashers next chapter, I swear.**

**P.S.: No, they didn't have sex or anything, but you're free to imagine how the rest of the night went for them. The thirst was real. You're welcome.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hoo, boy... Okay, so... To the people who felt a little uncomfortable with last chapter, I think you might want to skip the last half of this one, especially because I went as far as the rating T would let me (though, if you're reading a romantic story between Rob and Robin, then I have no idea what you thought you were getting when you started reading this). So, yeah... I'm sorry. **

**On a brighter note, this chapter was finished much sooner than I thought. I wonder why. **

**I wonder.**

**And, once again, I want to thank Makokam for beta reading this chapter for me! Seriously, thank you!**

* * *

><p>In less than ten minutes after their fight was over and Robin was declared winner, Rob, Robin, Lucina and Shulk were back in the hotel in less than five minutes thanks to Master Hand's teleportation. Before any of them could exchange a word, the big hand was already gone. The lobby was already starting to burst with late morning activity. Smashers could be seen walking around here and there, some agitated, others taking their sweet time to get wherever they wanted.<p>

"Congratulations, Robin," Lucina said, trying her best to be friendly. As much as she was rooting for Rob, it was no excuse to ignore her completely.

"Thanks..." Robin let out a yawn. "Man, I'm beat. I need to sleep badly."

"Did you get any rest last night?" she asked in concern, only noticing the eyebags now.

"Had a bad case of insomnia," she gave the best excuse she could come up with.

_And apparently Rob had too, what a coincidence, _Shulk thought, taking a good look at him. He had to admit it, he was very curious about what happened last night.

"Anyway, I'll see you guys later," Robin waved her goodbyes and made sure to get out of there before she could be stopped by any of the three Smashers.

Shulk watched her go with a puzzled expression, his curiosity now growing from the fact that Robin didn't even bother pulling him to the side to talk to him. Did she not trust him anymore or was it because Rob and Lucina were nearby and she couldn't come up with an excuse to get both of them away?

"Well, there's always tomorrow, right, Robin?" he heard Lucina say.

"Yeah, yeah, always tomorrow," Rob agreed, absentmindely.

"You don't look in the best shape either, Rob," Shulk commented. "Did something happen?"

Nothing, except that he had spent half of the night making out with Robin and the other half worrying that he had been making out with Robin. "Nothing, I just couldn't sleep well. Kept having nasty nightmares," he came up witht he second best excuse he could think of. Robin had already said insomnia, so he had to go with another thing.

"I understand completely," Lucina said, earning a glare of disbelief from Shulk. "We all suffer from traumatic nightmares every now and then, especially ones from our past, am I correct?"

"Uh, sure."

"So I take you won't be able to go with me to the weapon shop today?"

"Sorry, Lucy, I'll have to pass this time. You know I would love to go with you, but I don't think I can stand up any longer."

"Why don't you go sleep too? I'm certain a good rest now will be beneficial to you."

It wasn't as if he wanted to stay, anyway. "Thanks, Lucina," he smiled at her. "I will."

Rob said his goodbyes and walked away, leaving Shulk and Lucina behind. It was only when he was out of their sight that Shulk decided to ask Lucina how she could not see what was going on. "It's very obvious he was lying," he said, still baffled.

"I know," Lucina sighed. "I'm not stupid, Shulk. Besides, Rob's lies are a lot more elaborate and difficult to spot. That's why I suggested he sleep, because to say something like that, he must be really tired."

"I see..." he put a hand on his chin. "You know what could have happened?"

"I don't know, but I have the nagging feeling that the other Robin's involved in this," she pondered. "Do you think they had a fight last night?"

"I don't think they would fight so badly that it would take away their sleep."

"You never know..."

"By the way, you said something about a weapon shop?" he asked, changing the subject completely.

"Oh, right, I did. I was thinking about buying a spear."

"You mean you still haven't changed your mind about changing your move set?" Shulk asked, and sighing at her nod.

"Would you like to accompany me? I must admit I'm not very fond of the idea of going alone. The address Snake gave me is pretty far from here and in a very shady area."

"I have nothing else to do for the rest of the day," he shrugged his shoulders. "Sure, let's go. We're having a team battle against each other today, right? We'll go after we're done with it."

"It's settled then! Oh, thank you, Shulk!"

* * *

><p>Robin was already asleep by the time Rob entered their room, which really said something about how tired she was, considering he decided to return just a couple of minutes after her. He saw that she had already thrown her coat, vest and boots on the floor and considered doing the same, but just didn't have enough patience to do so, so he just took out his boots and flopped on his bed.<p>

In less than an instant, he fell asleep.

* * *

><p>Red stood in front of Lucario's room, patiently tapping his foot on the floor while he waited for the Pokemon to answer him. Ness just stood by his side, though not as patiently as his Pokemon trainer friend. Seriously, how long would it take for Lucario to open up that door when he knew they were outside?<p>

"Lucarioooo," Ness knocked on the door. "Open up! What's taking you so long?"

"He'll be here soon, don't rush him."

Ness couldn't understand how Red could be so patient with him. He was hungry and wanted to grab lunch soon, but Red first needed to give Lucario his daily dose of medicine before they could go.

As soon as he thought about calling for him again, they heard a click fromt he doorknob and saw a very annoyed Lucario showing up.

"_Do not fret, I was simply taking care of my daily meditation_," Lucario said.

"Medication first, meditation later," Ness whined. "Don't you care about your health?"

"_It IS good for my health._"

"Ness is just hungry," Red said as Lucario closed his door. "I said I was going to have lunch with him after we were done taking care of you."

"_There is no need for concern. I have recovered from my cold just fine._"

"Maybe, but just in case, we should keep it like this for three more days until we know for sure you have recovered."

Red was a peculiar case of a Smasher indeed. Being a Pokemon Trainer, he never had to fight his opponents directly, instead having to rely on giving commands to his three Pokemon: Squirtle, Ivysaur and Charizard. However, due to his poor performance and how difficult it was to keep up with his opponents when he changed from one Pokemon to another, Red was removed from the new tournament, but still had an active role in taking care of the Pokemon that resided in the hotel, as he had the most extensive knowledge over them, a very impressive thing for someone so young.

As such, even a Pokemon as independent as Lucario still needed him to keep his health in check.

The three Smashers were about to head back to the elevators and go to the ground floor, when Lucario stopped in his tracks. That caught the attention from the two boys, who turned around in confusion.

"You okay there, man?" Ness asked.

Lucario said nothing and just looked at the door by his side with unreadable amber eyes.

"Whose room is this anyway?" Red had a puzzled look on his face.

"_It belongs to both Robins,_" the Pokemon explained. "_There is something about their aura that makes me uneasy, yet I cannot quite understand the reason_."

"Something liiiiike..."

"_Just... Something_," Lucario shook his head and walked towards them. "_I apologize for the inconvinience. This is probably cause by a vestige of my cold._"

"Whatever, then. Let's go," Ness said, turning around and resting his hands ont he back of his head. "I still got a team battle with Lucina today and I want my stomach full for this."

Maybe then he could finally apologize to her. He felt he'd been dragging this issue for too long.

* * *

><p>"Rob? Rob, hey," the half-asleep tactician heard Robin whisper from behind him. "Are you awake?"<p>

He nodded his head, still groggy from his nap. He opened his eyes slightly and guessed it was the begining of the evening, considering how the room had a warm golden light painting the light lavender walls. It was going to start to get dark soon, so he seriously considered going back to sleep and wake up tomorrow.

Rob decided otherwise once he felt Robin climbing up on his bed. He moved over to give her some space, a wide smile on his face as he felt her cuddling him.

"Hey," he slightly turned his head.

She let out a sigh and buried her face on the back of his neck. "We need to talk," she said with a muffled voice.

"Yeah, I guess we do."

Rob turned around in order to face his roomate better. There was a moment of silence between them, both tacticians taking their time to let the situation sink in. Their faces were just inches apart from each other and a simple leaning forwards would make their lips touch without any effort.

"How long have you... Er..." she stuttered, suddenly avoiding his gaze. "How long have you been feeling like this towards me?"

"Longer than I took to realize, that's for sure," he carefully took out a strand of hair out from her face. "What about you?"

"A while. I don't know how it started, it just happened."

Robin then mumbled something Rob couldn't quite understand and absentmindly held his right hand, stroking the tattoo that was engraved on its back. He still had the mark of Grima for some reason. She remembered Rob once saying that from the timeline he came from, it was Chrom who dealt the final blow to Grima, meaning that, while he was defeated, he was not killed for real and Rob was not free from his connection to the fell dragon. In her timeline, it was she who finshed Grima off and put an end to the war against him, so she had no mark on her hand and was entirely free from his control.

There was nothing to worry about, though. Those were just memories of something neither of them had to go through. That mark represented nothing except a bitter reminder of the purpose they were created for.

"Robin?"

"Uh?"

She let go of his hand.

"So, what now?"

"I don't know, this is just too weird," she let out a shaky sigh. "And also kind of scary."

"I wouldn't say scary..."

"Yeah, okay, maybe 'scary' isn't the right word. I don't know, I just feel this knot in my stomach, but it's not the bad kind of type and, ugh," she buried her face in her hands. "I'm not making any sense, am I?"

Rob took her hands off from her face and gave her a light kiss.

"What about this? Does this make sense?"

"Well..."

"How did it feel?"

"It was nice."

"Just nice?"

"Rob, you just gave me a peck on the lips, don't expect me to have an orgasm over it," she gave a condescending smirk.

"Oh, yeah?"

Rob pressed his lips on hers again, this time giving a slower and more passionate kiss. For a split second he feared he would be pushed away again, but was relieved to see that not only she didn't pull herself away, but also started to incentivate him. A pleasent shiver ran down his spine as he felt her soft hand caressing the back of his neck and head, while she had her other free hand placed on his chest.

He felt a wave of heat invade his chest and work its way through his entire body. He tightly wrapped his arms around Robin's waist and pulled her closer to him until their figures framed each other perfectly. Their kiss began to slowly gain a faster pace and it took only seconds until Rob hungrily licked her lips, asking her for entrance. Robin happily obliged and opened her mouth to let their tongues meet, her entire body melting as he continued exploring her mouth with ease. A muffled moan escaped from her, as she could no longer hold it back (not that she was trying to, anyway).

And what a wonderful sound it was to Rob's ears indeed. Sure, he was used to hearing his roomate moan during the night, but those were all from the distress of a nightmare she was having. This was different and much, MUCH better. He wanted to hear more and he wanted it now.

Robin was suddenly confused as to why Rob just broke off from their kiss and gave him an annoyed look, one that seemed to demand for him to continue what he was doing. Rob just gave her a mischiveous look and, before she could do anything, she found herself laying on her back, with Rob on top of her on all fours.

"And now? How did it feel?" he smirked, his forehead almost touching hers.

"Hmm... Passable," she returned with the same smug smile. Two could play that game. "I give you a 7.8 out of 10, for effort."

Robin closed her eyes, expecting for him to go back to their kiss. She censored a gasp of surprise as she felt him planting a slow and light kiss on her jaw line, moving slowly to her neck, then back to her jaw and finally nibbling on her earlobe.

That was torture in its finest for her.

"R-Rob..." she hissed as he went back to teasing her with those light kisses on the nape of her neck. "J-Just get on w-with it... You're killing me here!"

He knew it well and was enjoying every minute of hearing her squirm and pant from the constant teasing. If he was guessing it right, he knew exactly what spot would do the trick. Rob felt her hand grabbing a good chunk of his hair and bring him to where she needed him most. That gesture in itself was already enough for him to decide to stop fooling around and get serious.

He kissed the base of her neck, this time using his tongue to trail his way to her collar bone.

"A-Ahh..."

There it was, the sound he wanted to hear the most. It was even better now that there was nothing getting in the way. Combining that with how roughly Robin was grabbing his hair at the moment, Rob had to admit he was pretty turned on at that point. He continued doing his work, assaulting every inch of her neck, stealing more vocal moans from her, when an idea crossed his mind.

"Robin," he grunted, lifting himself up and sitting on her lap.

She hesitantly opened her eyes and followed to where he gazed. A visible blush covered her cheeks, but she said nothing and consented with her head. "Just... don't go beyond that," she said between her heavy breathing.

"Sure, no problem."

Rob hastily lifted her top off, his heart beating even faster at the new sight of her breasts, her smallclothes being the only thing in the way.

"Beige, uh?"

"You were expecting a see-through lacy bra?" she let out a giggle, being followed by a grunt as he placed a kiss on her chest.

"Of course not," Rob paused for a moment. "Not the see-through part, anyway."

"Do you really think I would be wearing a cute, impractical bra when I had a battle and exercise today? It's not practical," she said. "Besides, all my black ones are washing."

Robin pulled him into another french-kiss before allowing him to work his way to her chest, all while his hand tentatively snaked to her inner thigh. Before he could go on, however he heard Robin giggling like a mad woman. He raised his head in confusion and saw his counterpart rolling her head upwards, bitting her lower lip and trying to restrain her laughter.

"Is... Something the matter?" he asked, apprehensively.

"It's just that, ha ha," she tried to sit up, but failed miserably. "I'm happy, that's all."

"Happy?"

"Yeah, happy," Robin raised her hand and gently touched his pale face. "This entire time I've been so worried you'd reject me. Because of... Well..."

"I know. Me too," he mimicked her gesture. "Robin, I know you're scared. I'm also pretty freaked out that all of this is happening. And I know I'm not the best man for you, but I..."

He was quickly silenced by Robin with a kiss on his lips.

"I love you too," she smiled.

He gave a bittersweet smile at her and rested his head on the crook of her neck. What would any of their friends think about this? Should they really care at all? They were both happy, so why should he feel any guilt?

"So, are you going to stay there or can I put my shirt back on? I'm kind of cold here."

"Can't I enjoy seeing you shirtless without you punching me for at least a little more?"

"Then take off yours too, because I'm not going to be be the only one half-naked here, mister."

He did as he was told and took off his coat, vest and shirt and went back to his original position, his skin tingilng in pleasure with the direct contact. A content sigh escaped from his lips as Robin started to comb his hair with her fingers and had her other warm embracing him by his waist.

"So... I guess that's it," he simply said.

"And that's it," she agreed. "Do you want to go have dinner later?"

"Nah, don't feel like going out. You?"

"One night without dinner won't kill us," she then lifted his chin, giving him one of the sweetest smiles he'd ever seen from her. "Besides, I... Kind of want to go on."

Rob found it kind of adorable just how bashful Robin suddenly became, a stark contrast to her more assertive personality. A playful smirk appeared on his face as he plant a soft kiss on her collarbone, before positioning himself to face her better.

"Good, because I kind of want to go on too."

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><p><strong>Okay, I'm not used to writing sexy make out scenes at all. This is a first for me and I think I'm still dying on the inside. Lucario's comment is kind of a gateway for something I'm planning to do with this story, but I'm not sure if I might even go with the idea, so you guys can interpert however you like what he meant with the Robins' aura making him uneasy.<strong>

**Speaking of guilty pleasure (which is basically Rob and Robin's relationship at the point), I want to ask something: is there any pairing that's a guilty pleasure to you? I'm refering to only Smash Bros pairings, by the way. I'm sure most of us has, or had, some at one point.**

**P.S: Okay, so Tune made an observation about the last scene that made me re-think it for a bit. I wanted to leave it like that, but it was either this and push this story to an M rating, or tone it down and keep it the T rating. I kind of went with the latter because I would feel kind of "meh" for pushing this story's rating just because of this chapter, so thanks for pointing that out, Tune! **


	10. Chapter 10

**Thanks again for all the reviews! I can't say enough how much you guys are great! This chapter will have a lot less Robin in it, but it was necessary for what I wanted to do here.**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

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><p>"Alright ya pipsqueaks, time to recap the plan," King DeDeDe whispered to the two Smashers in front of him.<p>

Ness rolled his eyes at the fat, oversized penguin, while Lucina just looked at the platform by her side, completely distracted. To say he felt insulted with such indiference and disdainfrom his subordinates would be an understatement. Here he was, trying to explain his master plan and guide them through today's battle to victory and all they did was treat him as if they didn't want to listen to him. Which was an absurd, because there were people out there who would kill to just have him give them a second of his time. Well, his servants acted like that, anyway.

And it was such a brilliant plan, the one he had!

"Your plan is stupid!" Ness complained, not even bothering with whispering, since the plan was, as he stated, stupid and there was no reason to hide it from the rival trio at the other side of the transporter room. "Seriously, you want Lucina and I to go hit Shulk, Marth and Little Mac and tank the entire battle, while you sit back and just keep throwing gordos at them?"

"Have y'forgotten how deadly they are? Do you know how much it hurts to have one lousy ball o' spikes hit ya in the nuts?" DeDeDe then grabbed his gigantic hammer and started spinning it. "Especially when they are thrown using this baby 'ere."

"But they are very easy to avoid and reflect," Lucina tried to object as well.

"Not if ya two keep distracting 'em."

"DeDeDe, you're big and fat, just go out in the front line and tank the battle for us."

Lucina just sighed and tried to look away from the arguing veterans. At the moment, all that she cared about was not to make a fool of herself in front of the Hero King. This would be the first battle she would have against him that wasn't training and, honestly, she didn't feel ready to face him. Not when she was still practicing her new moves. Lucina hoped he would at least be happy to see her trying to not steal his style and personality.

She got so lost in thought that she didn't realize that Ness was trying to call for her. "Lucina? Hey, Lucina," he said, nudging her arm. "We're about to go now. You ready?"

"O-Oh, absolutely," she forced a smile. "Let us do our best."

King DeDeDe scoffed, still completely sour over their refusal to carry on with his plan and turned his back to them, ready to step in the silvery platform on the floor. Lucina was about to follow him and step on the platform by his side when she felt a timid hand poking her back, making her turn around.

"What is it, Ness?" she asked.

"After this battle, can I talk to you?"

"Why not now?"

"Hey, ya two slugs, let's go already!"

"... Alright, we shall talk later."

The battle would take place in the Palutena's Temple stage, one of the very few that was large enough to accomodate six fighters in the same space and give them plenty of room to jump, kick and do whatever they wanted freely. In fact, it was just a little too large for some tastes. It had underground tunnels, a huge bridge, greek columns, a nice garden and all the good stuff a temple for a greek goddess would have. It was a wonderful and fun stage to fool around, but pretty much terrible for one-on-one combats and pretty much anything else.

Each Smasher spawned in a different part of the stage, Lucina being fortunate enough to appear next to the fountain, as it was on the upper level of the temple, meaning she wouldn't be forced to climb her way up. She was ready to take on anyone who got in her way...

On the other side of the bridge that was in front of her was Marth.

Well, anyone except for him!

Lucina gulped as she saw the Hero King swiftly running towards, his Falchion ready to strike. Now, in any other day, Lucina would just stay put and counter attack him when the time was ready, but it had been a while since she decided to get rid of her counter move. While it was one of her most effective moves, it was also the most shamelessly copied from Marth, as she couldn't quite remember knowing how to counter deadly attacks back in Ylisse.

She rolled to the side once he slashed his sword at her, the extremely sharp blade passing only inches from her nose. There was an opening right on his torso, now it was her chance to strike! Lucina spun around and lunged towards him, extending her right foot forward, but not enough for her to lose her balance, and thrusting the tip of her blade on his torso. A curse almost escaped from her mouth as the move wasn't as effective as she wanted. It didn't turn out awful, though, as Marth did stumble a couple of feet back from the attack.

"Uh?"

That was weird, Marth couldn't remember that technique from Lucina. He had been training with her for quite some time to know how her fighting style worked. That was to say, he knew himself well enough to know how she worked, since she basically had the same skills and style as him. He regained his posture and tried using Dancing Blade, unleashing a flurry os stabs on her, only for them to be blocked by the shield she activated. Marth then took advantage of that and grabbed her by her cape, kneeing her in the stomach two time before throwing her backwards.

He was kind of expecting her to use her counter move at any time, but that didn't seem to be the case for this battle.

The duel between the two royals went on for quite some time, as if the rest of the team didn't exist anymore (not that any of them showed up to reassure they were still there, all the other Smashers were fighting on a lower level). Marth soon found out that he wasn't imagining things, that Lucina's moves were completely different from what he saw during their training. The way she swung Falchion lacked grace, power and balance, completely unlike Lucina's technique. Sure, she now was a lot more unpredictable, but that wasn't saying a lot when even she didn't seem to know what she was doing.

Marth blocked whatever it was supposed to be that upper cut swing with of hers, still baffled she tried to attack him with the base of her sword, instead of thrusting the tip forward, and caused her to lose her balance and step back. It was time to finish her off with a Shield Breaker. He began foccusing on his attack, bringing Falchion close to his ear and ready to strike.

"GORDOOOOOO!"

As if answering an unspoken prayer, King DeDeDe fell from the sky and landed on the bridge behind him. Marth turned around in a startle, fast enough to spot the big penguim materializing a gordo out of thin air, but not to avoid said gordo was launched towards him. A sigh of relief escaped from Lucina as she saw her ancestor flying of from the stage due to the strong impact. She ran towards him and jumped in the air, slashing her sword at him to finish him off for good and help her team win the battle.

"Nice work, lass!" DeDeDe congratulated. "That's the last of 'em."

He was? Lucina hadn't realized. The stage started to dissolve and in two seconds she found herself standing in the familiar empty space that showed off winners and losers.

**The winner is... Blue Team!**

She did her obligatory winning pose, though not really paying any attention to what was happening. She just wanted to get Shulk and leave that stadium, preferably without having to talk to Marth. And for a moment she thought she would get what she wanted. When the group left the place and went to the exit of the stadium, Lucina managed to subtly pull Shulk to the side. "So, shall we go?" she asked, eagerly.

"Go to where... Oh, right! That weapon store. Sure, let's go before if gets dark."

"Lucina, wait!" Ness called out before she could leave with Shulk. "I still need to talk to you!"

She had completely forgotten about Ness.

"Lucina, I also want to talk to you," Marth said, approaching her at the same time. "Can you explain to me what was that performance of yours?"

"Hey, I asked to talk to her first! Get in line!"

"Can't all of this wait?" Lucina sighed. "I'm tired and there's still a place I need to go..."

"No, I have already been pushing this issue to the side for too long," Ness took a deep breath. "Lucina, I just want to say that I'm sorry for calling you a clone the other day."

"W-What?" she blinked a few times, trying to recall their conversation before.

"Yeah, I mean, I was trying to defend Lucas from being called a clone, but I just insulted you. So... Sorry about that, I didn't want to hurt your feelings. I know you're trying your best."

"Ness, you didn't insult me," Lucina smiled. "If anything, what you said had just served to open my eyes and make me want to change my moves so I can be more original."

"... What?"

Shulk just rubbed his arm and slowly stepped away from the group. He didn't need his powers to see that it would only go downhill from there, if Ness' and Marth's odd and unreadable expressions were to be taken into account. Without saying a word, the seer quietly walked to where DeDeDe and Little Mac chatted.

"W-What do you mean with be more original?" the young psychic cracked a nervous grin, switching glances between Lucina and Marth, who shot daggers with his eyes at him.

"Exactly what it sounds like. You said that Roy did not try hard enough as a Smasher because he was identical to Marth and implied he did poorly because of it," she went on, though not without noticing Ness' discomfort and Marth's silent judgemental stare. "So I have decided to change my fighting style to not fall into the same fate as him. In fact," she showed the piece of paper she had hidden under her sleeve. "I was even thinking about going to buy another weapon to use it as a projectile."

There was an awkward silence between the three fighters. Lucina didn't understand why she didn't receive immediate praise for deciding to change, while all Ness wanted to do was float away from that place before Marth decided to shove his Falchion up his ear. If he knew this would happen, he would have let the topic die.

"Lucina, what do you think you will accomplish with this?" Marth said, a lot more harshly than he intended.

"I don't understand."

"What do you think you will get with changing the way you fight like this? What are the benefits?"

"I thought I had made myself quite clear. I don't think it is fair for you that I try to mimick your fighting style, when I can come up with something completely of my own," the swordswoman frowned.

"Not fair to me?" Marth asked in surprise. "You seriously thought I was offended that you had a style identical to mine?"

"Of course."

"Lucina , that's not true!"

"You're much too kind, milord. But I still think it is not fair. You must have trained a lot to come up with the perfect fighting style, and it shows in the battlefield," Lucina's voice started to get shaky, something that did not go unnoticed by him. "A-And all I'm doing is copying you without giving a second thought. I should work like you and come up with something that is only mine."

Ness at that point had no words. How he wished he didn't open his mouth! He saw Shulk saying his goodbyes to King DeDeDe and Little Mac, neither Smashers interested in the commotion that unfolded between them. By the way Shulk look at their little group, it seemed like he already had an idea of the topic they wre discussing, but prefered to stay away for the moment.

"Lucina..." Marth put a hand on her shoulder, realizing she was shaking even more than he imagined. "Do you want to talk outside?" he glanced at Ness. "Alone?"

"I..." she sighed in defeat. "Yes."

Marth guided her to outside of the stadium, reassuring Ness and Shulk that they would be back shortly. "A good heart-to-heart is all she needs," Ness heard Shulk comment.

"You think so?"

"Of course! I used to do a lot of them with my friends back at home during my journey," he gave a bittersweet grin. "It usually solved a lot of unresolved feelings."

"Whatever, I just hope Marth comes back without the need to use me as a practice dummy for making Lucina feel bad."

Meanwhile, at the outside of the stadium, the noise of rush hour and the chilling breeze, combined with the smell of overworked car motors really were starting to make Lucina relax a little from her anxious state. Not because any of those things were soothing to her, but because it was the exact opposite of soothing and she was starting to pay more attention to how annoyed she was at the general atmosphere than at how nervous she was.

"Okay, so what is going on with you?" Marth asked, his tone of voice a lot softer. "What did Ness say, exactly?"

"Oh, please, don't take it out on Ness, he didn't insult me."

"Then what happened?"

"I just don't want people to think I'm not trying my best and that I'm a waste of opportunity. That I don't deserve to be in this tournament and that much better, original fighters should occupy my place," Lucina raised her hands in a gesture that said she wasn't finished. "And don't tell me people have no problems with clones, because we know it's not true. One talk with anyone that has been around the past tournaments would be enough to know what the general consesus was when it came to Smashers that had very similar fighting styles."

"Well, I'm not going to lie, what you said is true," Marth said.

"That is why..."

"Let me continue."

"O-Oh, alright..."

"I have been participating in the Super Smash Bros tournaments for a long time now and got to see a lot of what fans said about the Smashers, myself and Roy included. From Melee, to Brawl and to this recent tournament, there will always be a very vocal part of the fans that will jump at any opportunity to bash Smashers that they consider clones of older fighters."

Lucina could feel her heart sinking. Hearing all of that coming from Marth sounded a lot worse to her.

"But can I tell you something?"

"W-What?" she stuttered.

"We are all much less unique than we like to think we are."

"I... Don't understand."

"Lucina, we all are shaped through things and people that surround us. No one is one hundred percent original, because our personalities and manneirisms are pretty much influenced by everything that is part of our lifes, one way or another. Be it from the friends we make, or from the enemies we gain, none of our ideals came out of blue," Marth rested his hand on the hilt of his Falchion. "It may come to a surprise to you, but my moves were actually inspired by Roy."

"..."

"Surprised?"

"It is actually quite hard to believe, to be honest."

Marth let out a hearted laugh. "I know, nobody believes me when I say this. I think people just assumed he took his fighting style after mine because he was younger than me. But, the truth is, we came up with those moves together back in the Melee days. He would incorporate some of my moves, while I did the same with his," he explained, trying his best to not laugh at Lucina's dumbstruck face.

"So, not only am I copying you, but I'm also copying him as well?!"

"In a way, yes. But don't you see?" Marth smiled. "There is nothing wrong with you. Just take into account all the Smashers who took their techniques after the other. Mario and Luigi, Link and Toon Link, Fox and Falco, Pit and Dark Pit, even Captain Falcon and Ganondorf, believe it or not! And that's just naming a few."

"I see..."

"You also want to know something else?"

"What?"

"More than half of Ness' special PSI attacks aren't even his. He copied them from a girl named Paula, who used to travel with him back in his home world. Now tell me, do you think he should change just because of that?"

"Of course not!" she exclaimed. "Ness is an excellent fighter! What it matters is that he knows how to use those powers."

"So do you," he put a hand on her shoulder. "I'd rather see the confident Lucina that has the same technique as me and Roy, than have to fight against the Lucina who's trying so hard to be different, that she became lost in her own ideas."

Lucina crossed her arms and looked away, thinking about what she had just heard. It took her a couple of seconds to go back to looking Marth in the eye. "... What about the fans? Won't they hate me?" she finally asked.

"You're not going to please everyone, get this into your head already" the prince sighed. "You can be simply the best fighter in the tournament, yet there will always be some people who will find a reason to dislike you. This won't be something exclusive to you, everyone gets some sort of hate from someone, just like there will always be people out there who will love you."

Marth then gently lifted her chin up with his hand, his smile growing even bigger. "So chin up, will you? Don't waste your energy on people who will have no relevance in your life and won't help you on becoming a better person. Focus on those who will love you for who you are and show them what you came for. Master Hand didn't give you your own slot just because."

For a moment there was no response from Lucina and he sincerely feared that none of what he said was getting through her head. It didn't help that she was now looking at the ground, as if nothing made her fears dissipate. However, it wasn't so much as that she didn't take his words into consideration, as it was more of a case of extreme shyness and lack of right words to say.

"... Thank you, milord, really," she said quietly. "I promise I'll do my best. In my... Own terms, that are also yours."

"Glad to hear it. Also, you really don't need to call me that. Just call me Marth, there's no need for titles here."

"Right, mi- Marth," she surpressed a giggle. "Well, this certainly sounds odd."

"No, it really doesn't. Anyway, are you feeling better?"

"Yes."

"Good, then let's go back. I'm sure Ness and Shulk are wondering what is taking so long."

He could see her raising her hands, quickly bringing them closer to her chest. In a swift movement, she left in hurried steps towards the stadium, that shy smile still on her lips. That nagging sentiment of inadequecy and self-doubt was still there, yes, but hearing those things from Marth brought her a certain comfort, nonetheless. Just enough for her to drop the idea of changing her fighting style out of fear of rejection.

She still thought using a spear was a good idea.

Maybe on the next tournament.

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><p>For the first time in days Robin actually woke up feeling well rested. As in, she actually managed to get eight hours of sleep (even more so) without suffering any nightmares or waking up in the middle of the night just because. She could not stress enough how annoying it was to wake up in the middle of the night from a dreadful feeling of anxiety, as if there was something she should be doing at the moment.<p>

She looked at the clock on the bed desk at her left and saw that it was 9 AM. That certainly did wonders to her mood.

Robin let out a content sigh and lazily opened her eyes, a smile forming on her lips as she felt Rob's embrace on her waist tighten. Her smile faltered, however, as the embrace kept getting tighter and tighter, until she was starting to run out of air. He suddenly had his nails dug on her stomach and started breathing quite heavily on the back of her neck.

"R-Rob? Hey, wake up," she turned around with much effort in order to face him and struggled to break free. "You're having a nightmare. At least, I think you are. Wake up!"

"Ugh, Robin..." he woke up and let go of her immediately. "T-Thanks for waking me up."

"I had to. You were crushing my bones!"

"I was?!" his eyes widened and quickly let go of her waist. "Gods, Robin, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to!"

"It wasn't your fault, relax," Robin said and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Ready for today's battle?"

"No, not really," Rob groaned.

"Heh, me neither," she sat up and stretched her back. "Now get up and go get yourself ready. If we hurry, we might get a semi-decent breakfast."

"..."

"What?"

"I was going to try to convince you to stay in bed a little longer, but I can't think of anything to say with an empty stomach," he said, sheepishly.

"Yeah, maybe later," she smiled. "It's 9 AM, we really should be getting ready."

Rob sat up and watched while Robin grabbed her clothes and towel and went to the bathroom to take the shower she was supposed to take last night. "Oh, and Rob?" he heard her say, her hand gripping the doorknob.

"Yeah?"

"Don't you dare go easy on me in today's battle."

"Why do you think I would go easy on you?"

"Because I know you," she smirked. "You already go easy on Lucina, don't think that we don't notice. If you hold back today, I swear I'll punch you later."

"Don't worry, I won't," he retributed with another smirk. "I only go easy on ladies."

"Go fuck yourself."

"Okay, then, come here!" he gleefully tapped the spot by his side.

Rob winced as she slammed the door, her face as red as a tomato and that toothy grin that kept growing never leaving his face.

Messing with her sure was fun.

* * *

><p><strong>Let's face it, you all saw this joke coming from miles away. I'm not even sorry. <strong>

**Lucina totally wanted to hug Marth, and I kind of wanted her to do this, but Lucina's not really that touchy-feely with anyone that isn't Chrom or her mother (at least, that's the impression I got from the game), so I just made her stop on her tracks and feel prety awkward. I'm sure Marth wouldn't mind a hug, though.**

**Some of the pairings you guys said are actually pretty interesting! Some were pretty normal (for this fandom, anyway) and some were weird, but it was still interesting hearing what you guys had to say about shipping. So I'm gonna add my two cents and say that my biggest guilty pleasure pairings, aside from Robin/Robin, are Pit/Pokémon Trainer and Lucina/Peach. There, I said it. Sue me.**

**To the anon, I was just joking. Besides, I like the idea of a mute Link. No, really, I do! I just love it when fics incorporate this headcanon, and Hyrule Warriors even did that by giving him a fairy to translate what he wanted to say! **


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